li 


GIFT  OF 


1^ 


WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 
THE  REFORM-AGITATOR? 


WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS 

OF  THE 

REFORM-AGITATOR  ? 


BY 

R.  S.  D. 


»  j  .  >  .• 


CAMBRIDGE 

Printed  at  t&e  Etoerstoe  $xe** 
1912 


\\1 


.13' 


COPYRIGHT,   191 2,    BY   RICHARD  SYLVESTER  DOW 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


WHAT   ARE   THE  DEMANDS  OF 
THE    REFORM-AGITATOR? 

Sensation  is  the  order  of  the  day,  and  there 
is  keen  competition  among  those  who  wield  the 
pen,  or  pose  for  the  public  eye.  We  become  ac- 
customed to  the  bang  of  the  anarchist  and  the 
drivel  of  the  agitator.  Occasionally,  however,  the 
ordinary  citizen,  striving  to  keep  his  mental 
equilibrium,  meets  with  views  so  extreme,  and 
flowing  from  a  source  so  unexpectedly  radical, 
that  he  is  fairly  jostled  out  of  the  even  tenor  of 
his  way. 

This  occurred  not  long  ago  upon  the  discov- 
ery, in  a  newspaper  published  in  a  small  New 
England  town,  of  these  editorial  views  concern- 
ing the  Lawrence  strike:  — 

RUSSIA   OUTDONE 

By  means  of  alluring  literature  and  smooth-tongued 
agents,  the  ranks  of  the  workers  in  "  the  Free  land  of 
America"  are  recruited  from  the  "down-trodden" 
nations  of  Europe.  Russia  is  an  especially  fertile  field 
for  the  emigration  agent.  America  is  pictured   as  a 


t       WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

free  country  where  wages  are  high  and  the  people 
free  from  political  and  official  persecution.  These 
agents  are  employed  by  an  organization  of  employers 
of  labor  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  steady  supply  of 
low-priced  labor  coming  into  the  country  all  the  time 
to  combat  the  growing  tendency  toward  higher  wages 
and  better  living  conditions.  It  is  against  the  immi- 
gration laws  of  the  United  States  to  make  an  alien 
contract,  but  there  are  ways  of  evading  the  laws  and 
lawyers  to  show  these  ways. 

Just  at  present  these  foreigners  are  being  given  a 
taste  of  what  "  Freedom  "  means  in  America  at  Law- 
rence. The  Russian  outrages  of  which  we  have  read 
so  much  suffer  little  by  comparison.  The  striking 
workers  have  learned  that  they  must  either  work  at 
starvation  wages  or  starve  on  no  wages  at  all.  They 
must  not  gather  to  talk  over  their  grievances.  They 
must  not  speak  to  any  working-man  not  a  striker. 
They  must  not  speak  above  a  whisper.  They  are  sur- 
rounded by  a  cordon  of  soldiers  and  armed  policemen 
and  any  act  of  theirs  is  likely  to  be  termed  a  "disturb- 
ance of  the  peace"  and  they  are  likely  to  be  thrown 
into  jail.  Read  the  record  of  the  Lawrence  Police 
Court:  Fines  imposed  for  loitering  on  the  street;  for 
addressing  slurring  remarks  at  a  soldier;  for  speaking  to 
a  strike  breaker ;  for  making  loud  noises  in  public  places ; 
for  failure  to  return  home  when  ordered  by  a  police- 
man or  soldier.  These  charges  are  "  proved  "  by  the 
mere  assertion  of  the  arresting  officer  and  no  denial  is 
believed.  In  a  word,  the  city  of  Lawrence  is  being 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  3 

governed  by  a  military  despotism,  with  the  whole  power 
of  the  State  aimed  at  the  breaking  of  the  strike  and  the 
forcing  of  the  workers  back  into  the  mills,  without 
any  change  of  conditions  of  labor  being  effected. 

The  strikers  have  been  denied  the  right  to  send  their 
children  out  of  the  city  where  they  may  be  safe  from 
the  scenes  of  disorder  and  where  they  may  cease  to  be 
a  burden  to  their  parents  during  the  progress  of  the 
strike.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  of  no  greater  as- 
sistance to  the  slave-owners  than  the  laws  as  they  are 
interpreted  and  enforced  in  Lawrence. 

A  strike  leader  is  charged  with  murder  and  is  in 
danger  of  the  electric  chair  because  he  is  alleged  to  have 
counselled  violence  on  the  part  of  the  strikers  and  be- 
cause a  woman  was  shot  by  a  policeman  or  a  militia- 
man during  a  riot.  In  order  that  the  strikers  may 
be  deprived  of  his  assistance  in  the  carrying-on  of 
the  strike,  he  is  held  in  jail  without  bail  awaiting 
trial. 

Americans  have  condemned  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment for  its  acts  of  cruelty  and  official  oppression.  We 
have  invited  the  oppressed  to  come  to  our  free  shores 
and  escape  tyranny,  and  when  they  have  gotten  here  they 
have  found  tyranny  no  less  severe  than  that  from 
which  they  believed  they  were  escaping. 

Governor  Foss  has  the  power  to  put  an  end  to  these 
conditions  at  Lawrence,  but  he  seems  to  be  in  no 
mood  to  do  so.  His  alleged  friendship  for  the  people 
ends  with  election  day  and  he  becomes  at  once  a  part- 
isan of  the  class  to  which  he  belongs  —  the  "Cap- 


4       WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

tains  of  Industry "  who  hold  dividends  more  sacred 
than  human  life. 

An  effect  was  produced  similar,  probably,  to 
that  which  would  be  experienced  if  the  hands  of 
time  were  to  be  suddenly  set  back  several  cent- 
uries ;  and  our  citizen  was  moved  to  ask  a  few 
questions  concerning  the  exact  purport  of  the 
article  and  the  attitude  in  general  of  the  paper. 
These  were  his  inquiries  to  the  editor :  — 

I  read  with  much  interest  and  care  the  editorial  en- 
titled "Russia  Outdone"   appearing    in  the  " 

"  of  February  29th  ult. 

Is  it  possible  that  the  little  paper  which  seems  to  be 
endeavoring  to  place  itself  in  the  bosom  of  every  fam- 
ily stands,  in  matters  so  serious  as  this,  for  conclusions 
which  are  based  solely  upon  assumed  premises  ? 

That  they  are  assumed  is  best  illustrated  by  the 
fourth  paragraph:  — 

"  A  strike  leader  is  ...  in  danger  of  the  electric 
chair  because  he  is  alleged  to  have  counselled  violence 
on  the  part  of  the  strikers  and  because  a  woman  was 
shot  by  a  policeman  or  a  militiaman,  during  a  riot." 

Have  we  come  to  the  point  where  a  case  properly 
before  the  courts  is  to  be  tried  and  decided  by  our 
" ,"  without  a  hearing? 

The  case  of  Mr.  Ettor  has  not  yet  been  heard. 
How,  then,  can  the  author  of  this  article  state  as  a 
cold  fact  that  the  deceased  woman  was  shot  by  any- 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  5 

body  in  particular  ?  Why  does  the  author  distinguish 
between  the  allegation  as  to  the  counselling  of  vio- 
lence by  Ettor  and  the  allegation  by  Ettor  that  the 
woman  was  shot  by  a  policeman  or  militiaman  ?  How 
does  the  author  know  ? 

In  the  second  paragraph  he  makes  a  series  of  state- 
ments which  to  uninitiated  minds  are  very  apt  to  be 
taken  pro  confesso;  "  They  must  not  gather  to  talk  over 
their  grievances ;  they  must  not  speak  to  any  working- 
man  not  a  striker;  they  must  not  speak  above  a  whis- 
per. In  a  word,  the  city  of  Lawrence  is  being  governed 
by  a  military  despotism,  with  the  whole  power  of  the 
State  aimed  at  the  breaking  of  the  strike  and  the  forc- 
ing of  the  workers  back  into  the  mills  without  any 
change  of  conditions  of  labor  being  effected." 

Now,  every  one  of  those  statements  is  open  to  con- 
tradiction ;  and  I  am  using  the  mildest  terms  possible 
under  the  circumstances.  There  is  not  and  never  was 
a  law  or  rule  in  Lawrence  or  any  other  part  of  the 
United  States  of  America  to  prevent  people  from 
gathering  to  talk  over  their  grievances.  There  never 
was  a  law  or  a  rule  to  prevent  one  man  speaking  to 
another,  unless  the  speaker  is  obnoxious.  Neither  the 
people  who  want  to  work  at  Lawrence  nor  the  author 
of  this  editorial,  nor  anybody  else,  is  willing  to  be  an- 
noyed. Every  one  of  us  has  a  right  to  attend  to  his 
own  business  and  to  demand  that  he  be  not  molested. 

There  is  no  such  rule  of  law  or  of  the  police  board 
or  of  the  militia  as  would  prevent  a  man  speaking 
above  a  whisper.  People  have  no  right  to  raise  a  pub- 


6       WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

lie  riot ;  they  have  no  right  to  make  themselves  publicly 
obnoxious.  They  have  no  right  to  gather  for  the  pur- 
pose of  talking  over  their  grievances  in  a  way  which 
constitutes  a  public  nuisance  or  which  prevents  the 
transaction  of  business  or  the  performance  of  labor. 

There  is  no  desire  on  the  part  of  the  city  of  Law- 
rence or  the  militia  or  the  mill-owners,  or  anybody 
else,  to  force  the  workers  back  into  the  mills ;  they 
went  out  of  their  own  accord  and  they  are  at  liberty 
to  stay  out. 

If  this  editorial  is  intended  to  be  an  argument  in 
favor  of  the  right  of  any  class  of  labor  to  coerce  other 
laborers  or  other  classes  into  adopting  the  dogmas  and 
the  views  entertained  by  the  first-named  class,  then  I 

can  see  that  the  " "  does  not  stand  for  the 

principles  that  it  purports  to  uphold. 

The  article  is  a  diatribe  against  oppression.  It  and 
the  " "  call  for  freedom.  Is  it  freedom  to  labor- 
ers who  want  to  work  to  be  coerced  into  idleness  ? 

I  have  watched  the  progress  of  this  sort  of  thing  for 
a  good  many  years.  I  have  myself  labored,  on  a  farm, 
in  a  grain  store,  in  a  bank,  in  a  law  office  —  on  wages 
and  on  salary.  And  I  have  been  laboring  ever  since  I 
reached  a  point  where  I  became  independent,  so-called. 
To  my  way  of  thinking  this  editorial  is  absolutely  un- 
fair and  unjust.  Not  alone  to  the  mill-owners  and 
the  city  of  Lawrence  and  the  militia  and  the  State 
Government,  but  to  every  reasoning,  honest  man  in 
the  United  States  of  America.  It  is  based  upon  prin- 
ciples absolutely  false  and  unsound.  And,  while  we 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  7 

cannot  attack  the  logic,  yet  the  premises  are  absolutely 
preassumed  ;  and  most  of  the  alleged  facts,  if  not  pure 
fiction,  are  yet  to  be  proven. 

These  "  poor,  down-trodden  laborers,"  about  whom 
this  editorial  makes  such  an  outcry,  are  far  better 
off,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  this  country  than  they  were 
in  the  countries  from  which  they  came.  The  trouble 
is  that  there  are  in  all  countries  certain  people,  depen- 
dent upon  others  for  their  means  of  livelihood,  who 
do  not  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  very  presence  of 
capital,  and  accumulation,  aggregation  and  consolida- 
tion of  it,  through  thrift,  enterprise,  and  ability,  is  what 
gives  them  their  employment.  This  class  includes  a 
good  many  young  men  who  absorb  the  false  doctrines 
of  fanatics  and  unpractical  people.  This  absorption, 
combined  with  just  enough  education  to  cause  them 
to  be  dangerous  to  themselves  as  well  as  the  public, 
and  contaminated  by  a  desire  to  emulate  the  example  \ 
of  many  who,  through  thrift,  or  otherwise,  have  the 
ability  to  indulge  in  a  little  more  extravagance  in  their 
way  of  living,  is  to  a  great  extent  responsible  for  these 
outbursts  in  the  way  of  demands  for  more  and  more 
remuneration  for  work  which  is  not  worth  any  more. 
A  friend  of  mine  recently  told  me  that  on  his  way  to 
and  from  business  he  had  occasion  to  pass  a  boot-black 
parlor.  That  invariably,  both  at  noon  and  at  night,  the 
place  was  filled  with  boys  of  sixteen,  eighteen,  twenty, 
or  twenty-five  years  old,  all  of  them  with  cigarettes 
or  cigars  in  their  mouths,  waiting  to  have  their  shoes 
polished,  at  a  cost  of  ten  cents.  That  most  of  these 


8       WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

young  people  are  earning  perhaps  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty 
dollars  a  week.  Is  it  necessary  in  these  days  for  wage- 
earners  to  have  their  boots  blacked  by  others  while 
they  sit  and  smoke  a  ten-cent  cigar? 

What  is  the  principal  object  behind  most  of  the  de- 
mands for  increased  wages  ?  Look  at  the  moving  pic- 
ture shows,  the  saloons,  the  cigar-stores,  the  boot-black 
emporiums ;  look  at  the  feathers  on  the  hats,  the  mar- 
abou and  silks  on  the  backs,  and  you  have  the  answer. 

It  is  very  common  to  attribute  all  this  trouble,  which 
comes  periodically  at  least  in  this  country,  to  the  capi- 
talist classes,  so-called.  From  a  sense  of  justice  and 
fairness,  and  knowing  both  sides  of  the  question,  as 
I  do  know  it  and  have  known  it  for  thirty-five  years 
past,  I  have  only  this  to  say — /that  if  there  is  no*^ 
longer  a  premium  on  thrift,  and  if  the  principles,  which 
the  author  of  the  editorial  referred  to  seems  to  believe 
and  advocate,  are  sound,  and  if  this  country  is  reaching 
a  point  where  one  man  must  not  make  any  more  than 
another,  or  if,  as  Mr.  Ettor  stated  in  open  court,  the 
production  by  labor  belongs  all  of  it  to  labor,  we  shall! 
finish  as  we  began  when  Plymouth  Colony  was  set- 
tled, —  by  the  resumption  of  a  condition  of  society 
where  everybody  lived  on  his  plot  of  land  and  made 
his  own  mittens  and  boots  and  jumpers ;  and  where 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  laboring  class,  because, 
while  all  were  laborers,  all  were  independent,  —  com- 
mercially independent. 

If  the  author  of  that  article  can  name  any  interme- 
diate point  which  can  be  reached  by  and  through  true 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  9 

principles  of  economics,  and  where  everybody  will  be 
satisfied,  it  would  be  the  basis  of  the  most  interesting 
editorial  he  ever  wrote. 

I  have  read  scores  of  articles,  —  by  Bishop  Potter, 
President  Eliot,  Samuel  Gompers,  John  Mitchell, 
Morgan,  Rabbi  Fleischer,  Roosevelt,  and  dozens  and 
dozens  of  other  people,  in  all  walks  of  life,  —  articles 
written  for  the  laboring  class,  so-called ;  articles  in- 
tended to  assist  in  the  determination  of  the  question 
constantly  before  us.  I  have  never  yet  heard  any  one 
state  in  clear  terms  where  the  line  is  to  be  drawn  ; 
and  there,  let  me  remind  you,  is  where  the  trouble 
arises:  namely,  the  uncertainty  of  it  all.  You  can- 
not do  business  with  uncertainties  surrounding  you. 
There  must  be  fixed  quantities,  fixed  values,  some- 
thing tangible,  upon  which  to  construct  progressive 
business. 

I  do  not  wish  to  enter  upon  any  discussion  as  to 
what  constitutes  a  living  wage.  I  would  like  to  say 
this,  however  :  no  one  of  those  workmen  has  died  from 
hunger  and  no  one  of  the  families  of  those  who  wish 
to  and  are  able  to  work  has  gone  to  a  poor-house. 
Nearly  every  single  one  of  the  foreigners  has  sent 
money  back  to  his  native  country.  A  Polish  laborer 
said  to  a  friend  of  mine,  "  You  need  never  have  any 
fear  about  the  Pole ;  after  he  has  been  here  two  years 
he  will  have  a  surplus  of  cash  on  hand."  Now,  what 
does  that  statement  mean  ?  Why,  it  means  that  he 
has  already  become  a  capitalist.  Everybody  knows 
what  the  Italian  is  capable  of  doing ;  and  it  is  nobody's 


io     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

business  what  he  lives  on  while  he  is  doing  it.  I  my- 
self looked  over  the  books  of  the  store  on  a  cotton 
plantation  in  the  delta  of  Arkansas,  and  saw  innumer- 
able cases  where  Italians  working  on  that  plantation 
had  sent  and  were  sending  back  to  banks  in  Italy,  after 
a  few  years  of  labor,  drafts  amounting  to  one,  two, 
three,  and  even  four  or  five  thousand  dollars. 

And  that  leads  to  the  silly  distinction  between  capi- 
talist and  laborer  out  of  which  so  much  material  is 
made  by  the  demagogue  and  the  labor  agitator  j  neither 
of  them  taking  up  the  cudgels  from  a  humanitarian 
standpoint,  as  a  rule. 

t  We  are  all  laborers  as  long  as  we  live.  We  cannot 
escape  it.  We  can  all  become  capitalists  by  and  through 
the  means  of  thrift  and  industry  and  self-discipline,  but 
we  can  never  tear  ourselves  away  from  being  laborers 
so  long  as  we  do  any  sort  of  business.  I  don't  mean 
to  include  in  this  sweeping  statement  the  idle  rich,  of 
which  there  are  not  so  many  in  this  world  as  has  been 
generally  supposed,  and  of  which  the  number  is  be- 
coming smaller  and  smaller  each  year.  Even  on  that 
point,  if  one  wished  to  digress  a  bit,  something  could 
be  said  in  favor  of  him  who  chooses  to  live  upon  a  fixed 
income  without  doing  any  work.  He  certainly  does  not 
take  business  from  the  people  in  any  profession  which 
he  might  enter,  nor  does  he  take  positions  which  can 
be  filled  by  others  who  have  less  income.  And  finally, 
he  settles  his  own  problem  because,  if  he  is  simply  an 
idle  person  or  what  somebody  designated  as  a  "  gentle- 
manly vagrant,"  he  will  gradually  dwindle,  mentally, 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  n 

physically,  and  probably  morally,  into  a  non-prolific 
nonentity. 

I  would  call  the  attention  of  the  author  of  the  editorial 
to  a  single  principle  out  of  many  of  economics  which 
he  either  never  knew  or  has  not  taken  into  account, 
and  which  is  this,  —  the  man  who  does  the  greatest 
good  for  the  commonwealth,  meaning  the  country  as 
a  whole,  is  not  the  man  who  throws  his  money  away, 
or  hoards  it  in  a  stocking,  or  spends  it  for  no  profit ; 
but  the  man  who  prudently  invests  his  savings  in  en- 
terprises,—  mills,  railroads,  factories,  or  retail  business, 
—  all  of  which  give  employment  to  others. 

If  this  editorial  had  had  one  saving  point  it  might 
have  been  excusable.  If  the  author  had  chosen  to  say, 
"  I  believe  in  socialism ;  I  believe  in  labor  unionism ; 
I  believe  in  labor  standing  up  for  its  rights;  I  believe  in 
laws  that  will  cut  down  the  opportunities  for  creating 
aggregations  of  capital  in  the  hands  of  very  few"  and  all 
that  sort  of  thing,  —  it  might  pass  as  a  mere  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  and  of  an  opinion  in  most  of  which 
all  thinking  men  of  sound  judgment  may  concur.  But 
neither  he  nor  any  other  can  ever  hope  to  gain  any- 
thing of  value,  for  himself  or  the  community,  or  the 
commonwealth,  by  advocating  or  condoning  the  de- 
struction of  property  or  interference  with  commerce, 
or  business,  or  the  right  of  men  to  labor  unmolested. 
I  would  not  raise  a  finger  or  interpose  a  word  of  ob- 
jection to  the  article,  if  it  entertained  or  admitted,  or 
even  alluded  to,  the  real  and  basic  principles  of  economics 
governing  all  relations  of  employer  and  employee. 


12     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

I  believe  I  am  as  humane  as  any  person,  but  there 
are  certain  fixed  principles  which  must  be  observed  by 
everybody  if  we  are  to  continue  to  live  under  any 
civic  contract.  I  do  not  say  the  laws  cannot  be  bet- 
tered j  but  while  they  stand  on  the  books  they  must 
be  observed,  or  the  civic  entity  must  fall. 

If  it  falls,  does  the  author  of  this  editorial  believe 
that,  with  everybody  on  the  same  basis,  there  would 
be  no  advancement  by  certain  members  of  society 
more  rapid  than  by  others  ?  Does  he  believe  that,  if 
those  advances  were  rendered  impossible  by  law,  the 
progressive  element  would  not  fall  back  and  the  whole 
race  deteriorate,  until  a  state  of  things  approaching 
barbarism  would  be  reached  ? 

Let  the  author  amend  his  editorial  by  the  single 
statement  alone,  that  law  and  order  must  be  maintained, 
and  he  then  boils  his  argument  down  to  the  proposi- 
tion embodied  in  these  questions, —  Must  a  mill- 
owner  employ  labor  whether  he  wishes  to  or  not  ? 
Must  he  stand  by  and  see  certain  people  interfere 
with  the  employment  by  him  of  such  labor  as  he 
chooses  to  take  in  ? 

If  these  principles  are  to  be  established,  we  shall 
see  business  as  dead  as  the  renowned  "Chelsea"; 
and  if  business  is  dead,  who  profits  ?  Does  the  la- 
borer ?  Does  the  socialist  ?  Does  the  editor  of  a  news- 
paper ? 

The  letter  was  published  in  due  form  and 
with  headlines   which  doubtless  to  the  editor 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  13 

seemed  appropriate,  as  the  following  editorial 
note  was  appended  :  — 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  above  communication 
does  not  conform  to  our  rules  (which  require  that  the 
name  of  the  writer  be  signed  to  communications),  we 
decided  to  print  the  above  criticism,  as  it  is  a  criticism 
of  the  editor  and  not  of  any  reader  of  this  paper.  It 
was  written  by  a  lawyer  of  repute  and  doubtless  his 
initials  will  identify  him  sufficiently  to  the  majority 
of  our  readers.  Not  having  the  privilege  of  a  legal 
education,  the  editor  is  at  a  disadvantage  in  answer- 
ing a  criticism  of  this  kind,  but  we  freely  admit  that 
the  arguments  presented  above  are  based  upon  an  en- 
tirely different  point  of  view  than  those  upon  which 
the  editorial  was  founded,  and  it  is  our  aim  to  get 
both  sides  of  the  case  before  our  readers  in  order  that 
they  may  form  intelligent  conclusions.  As  we  have 
before  stated,  the  purpose  of  the  editor  is  not  to  un- 
duly emphasize  his  own  views,  but  to  encourage  dis- 
cussion of  this  kind  and  we  welcome  criticism  as  well 
as  commendation  of  the  views  expressed.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  editorial  entitled  "Russia  Outdone" 
has  been  praised  in  many  quarters  as  being  well  in 
accordance  with  the  facts  as  they  are  generally  under- 
stood, and  writers  of  far  greater  prominence  have 
expressed  the  same  views.  We  cannot  agree  with 
the  writer  in  condemning  the  extravagance  of  the 
wage-earners  in  liking  good  clothes  and  luxuries, 
while  at  the  same  time  ignoring  the  extravagance  of 


14     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

those  who  live  upon  the  product  of  their  labor.  This 
question  is  too  great  to  be  settled  by  any  mere  coun- 
try newspaper  editor,  or  even  by  any  lawyer,  no  mat- 
ter how  great  his  prominence,  but  the  fundamental 
principle,  that  human  rights  are  of  more  moment  than 
property  rights,  must  be  conceded  by  all  thinking  persons. 

In  the  same  issue  of  the  paper  appeared  a 
letter  from  another  subscriber,  as  follows :  — 

A   PLAUSIBLE   PLEA   FOR   HIS   CLIENTS 


WRITES    FROM 


HIS  VIEWS  OF  ARTICLE 

Editor : 

I  read  with  much  interest  and  care  the  editorial  en- 
titled "  Russia  Outdone,"  and  find  it  voices  the  senti- 
ment of  all  the  editors  whose  expressions  have  come 
to  my  notice,  and  especially  the  leading  journals  of 
this  state. 

" "  has  made  a  very  plausible  but  misleading 

plea  for  his  clients.  The  last  paragraph  of  "  Editor's 
Note  "  and  the  statement  there  made,  that  "  the  funda- 
mental principle  that  human  rights  are  of  more  mo- 
ment than  property  rights,"  contains  more  truth  than 
the  entire  article  by  " ." 

In  no  epoch  of  the  world's  history  have  such  im- 
portant questions  presented  themselves,  or  been  forced 
upon  us,  for  solution  as  those  that  confront  us  at  the 
very  threshold  of  this  new  century.  Shall  we,  in  the 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  15 

solution,  but  repeat  history,  and  see  our  nation  de- 
stroyed ?  No  !  A  thousand  times  no  ! 

Our  government  can  endure  ;  our  government  must 
endure ;  our  government  shall  endure  ;  but  it  must  be, 
and  early  become,  a  government  u  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  for  the  people." 

The  fundamental  law  of  such  government  shall  be 
righteousness,  the  controlling  spirit  must  be  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,  ex- 
emplified in  substance,  not  in  form. 

Now,  if" "  is  as  eloquent  with  his  tongue  as 

he  is  facile  with  his  pen,  and  honestly  desires,  or 
rather  desires  honestly,  to  enlighten  your  readers  upon 
this  great  question  so  vital  to  all,  and  is  willing  to 
publicly  discuss  the  issue,  he  shall  be  accommodated, 
and  the  public  enlightened  and  entertained. 

And  the  same  sheet  contained  this  editorial :  — 

TO  m " 

There  is  a  wide  divergence  of  opinion  in  regard  to 
the  facts  in  relation  to  the  Lawrence  strike,  and  our 
friend  who  signed  himself" "  in  a  communica- 
tion in  these  columns  last  week  may  be  classed  among 
those  who  deprecate  and  deplore  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  working  class  to  better  wage  conditions. 
The  writer  takes  the  editor  of  this  paper  to  task  for 
having  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  arrest  of  Ettor 
was  an  outrage,  and  alleges  that  a  criticism  of  the 
courts  was  involved  in  the  editorial,  "  Russia  Out- 
done."   He  asks,  "  Why  does  the  author  distinguish 


16     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

between  the  allegations  as  to  the  counselling  of  vio- 
lence by  Ettor  and  the  allegation  by  Ettor  that  the 
woman  was  shot  by  a  policeman  or  a  militiaman  ? " 
If  we  have  read  the  records  of  the  case  correctly  the 
woman  was  shot  during  the  progress  of  a  disturbance 
in  which  the  police  and  militiamen  used  their  revolv- 
ers to  quell  the  riot,  and  there  was  no  evidence  to  show 
that  any  of  the  strikers  used  firearms,  their  weapons 
being  bits  of  ice  and  stones.  Furthermore,  we  have 
always  understood  that  in  order  to  charge  any  person 
with  being  an  accessory  to  a  crime,  it  is  first  necessary 
to  have  a  principal  who  committed  the  crime,  and  in 
this  case  no  such  principal  is  being  tried.  When  the 
authorities  go  outside  of  the  law  in  their  efforts  to  en- 
force peace,  we  feel  that  we  are  justified  in  calling  the 
act  an  outrage.  If  any  one  should  be  made  amenable 
to  law,  surely  it  is  those  who  have  the  enforcement 
of  laws  as  their  duty.  The  writer  ignores  entirely  the 
arbitrary  act  of  the  chief  of  police  of  Lawrence  in  pre- 
venting the  children  of  the  strikers  from  leaving  the 
city  and  the  arrest  of  their  mothers  and  their  incarcer- 
ation in  jail.  Yet  the  chief  of  the  Lawrence  police,  in 
the  hearing  at  Washington,  has  stated  that  he  knew  of 
no  specific  law  justifying  his  act.  Again  we  charge 
the  act  as  an  act  of  persecution. 

The  writer  says, "  Look  at  the  moving-picture  shows, 
the  saloons,  the  cigar-stores,  the  boot-black  empori- 
ums ;  look  at  the  feathers  on  the  hats,  the  marabou 
and  silks  on  the  backs,  and  you  have  the  answer." 
The  answer  to  what  ?  To  the  question,  "  What  is 


^THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  17 

the  principal  object  behind  most  of  the  demands  for 
increased  wages  ? "  Does  the  writer  believe  that  the 
workers  in  the  woolen  mills  of  Lawrence  spend  their 
hard-earned  money  in  riotous  living,  following  the  ex- 
ample of  those  who  squander  easily-obtained  fortunes 
on  whims  and  fancies  ?  He  further  states  that  none  of 
these  workmen  has  died  from  hunger.  Is  this  a  cause 
for  congratulation  ?  Must  a  working-man  die  of  hun- 
ger in  order  to  entitle  him  to  sympathy  ?  "  Nearly 
every  one  of  the  foreigners  has  sent  money  back  to 
his  native  country."  Is^this  true  ?  How  can  they  do  it 
on  the  wages  they  receive  and  still  have  money  left  to 
get  their  shoes  shined  and  clothe  themselves  with 
silks  and  marabou  on  a  weekly  wage  of  from  $6  to 
#9  per  week  ? 

"  I  believe  I  am  as  humane  as  any  person,  but  there 
are  certain  fixed  principles  which  must  be  observed  by 
everybody  if  we  are  to  continue  to  live  under  any  civic 
contract  .  .  .  while  the  laws  stand  on  the  books  they 
must  be  observed."  To  that  we  say  aye.  We  agree 
with  him  in  his  statement,  but  we  disagree  with  him 
in  his  application  of  the  principles  which  seem  to  be 
applied  by  him  to  the  laborers  alone.  We  do  not  up- 
hold the  laborer  in  his  acts  of  violence ;  but  we  con- 
demn those  who  meet  violence  with  violence  and  law- 
lessness with  lawlessness. 

We  have  no  inclination  to  follow  the  example  of 
our  correspondent  who  takes  three  columns  of  space 
to  refute  the  statements  made  in  a  half-column  edi- 
torial. We  hold  no  brief  for  either  side  of  the  question 


18      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

at  issue.  We  do  believe,  however,  that  the  mill-owners 
have  created  the  conditions  of  which  the  workers  com- 
plain and  that  they  are  pursuing  wrong  tactics  in  forc- 
ing an  issue  and  using  the  methods  which  they  have 
used.  Before  the  law  the  word  of  a  laborer  is  as  good 
as  the  word  of  a  millionaire,  yet  strikers  have  denied 
and  policemen  and  militiamen  have  affirmed,  and  in 
every  case  the  word  of  the  policeman  and  the  word 
of  the  militiaman  have  been  accepted  as  truth  in  the 
Lawrence  court  and  the  arrested  person  has  not  been 
given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  which  the  law  allows. 

Fairly  boiled  down  to  its  basic  facts,  the  whole  ar- 
gument of  the  writer  is  summed  up  in  these  words : 
"  Let  the  capitalist  alone;  let  him  employ  such  labor 
as  he  chooses  for  such  wages  as  he  may  choose  to 
pay.  If  any  one  objects,  let  him  starve."  We  hardly 
feel  that  the  majority  of  our  readers  are  in  accord  with 
these  views.  Most  capitalists  will  admit  that  they  have 
certain  obligations  to  society  and  that  society  has  a 
right  to  protect  itself.  The  classing  as  anarchists  and 
socialists  all  those  who  demand  that  a  just  rule  be 
made  governing  those  who  employ  labor  as  well  as 
those  who  labor  avails  nothing,  but  only  serves  to  fur- 
ther inflame  class  prejudice  and  hastens  the  day  of 
the  inevitable  strife  between  capital  and  labor,  the 
portent  of  which  is  in  the  sky  at  the  present  time  and 
which  can  only  be  prevented  by  wise  legislation  and 
the  establishment^  sound  economic  principles  which 
will  give  capital  its  due  and  still  be  just  to  the  worker 
who,  after  all,  is  the  only  creator  of  wealth. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  19 

It  is  very  gratifying  to  know  that  editors  of 
newspapers  are  willing  to  give  space  for  outside 
views  on  a  problem  which  is  perplexing  the 
minds  of  many  people  to-day.  It  is  an  old  say- 
ing that  a  child  can  formulate  a  question  to 
answer  which  would  require  a  lifetime.  The 
subjects  treated  in  the  foregoing  editorials  and 
correspondence  have  furnished  themes  for  a 
complete  library  of  literature.  The  strife  between 
capital  and  labor  has  been  with  us  for  some  time 
past.  It  is  the  reflection,  not  the  portent,  which 
one  sees  in  the  sky. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  challenge  to 
debate  assumes,  without  any  knowledge  or 
grounds  for  the  assumption,  that  the  inquiries 
sent  to  the  editor  were  "plausible  and  mislead- 
ing pleas  for  clients."  The  writer  thereof  had 
no  clients  which 'needed  any  such  plea.  If  his 
communication  did  not  affect  the  public  as  a 
whole,  it  was  not  worth  reading.  The  challenge 
mistakes  the  nature  of  the  subject-matter,  which 
is  neither  a  campaign  issue  nor  material  for  a 
revival  meeting.  Of  all  the  questions  which  we 
in  this  world  must  pass  upon,  those  under  con- 
sideration should  be  treated  most  calmly  and 
rationally.  If  either  one  of  the  disputants  in 


20      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

public  discussion  were  not  shot  or  dynamited 
before  he  reached  his  peroration,  it  would  be 
somewhat  remarkable.  These  are  not  subjects 
for  public  debate.  They  demand  the  use  of  the 
soundest  logic  and  of  terms  the  least  misleading. 
Not  forensics  but  reason  should  be  brought  to 
bear. 

The  inflaming  of  class  prejudice  can  be 
brought  about  no  more  effectually  than  by  the 
use  of  distorted  economic  principles,  and  vague 
and  misleading  generalities. 

Now,  taking  up  a  few  of  the  points  involved, 
let  us  briefly  note  that  it  would  seem  to  be  an 
axiom  of  the  agitator  that  manual  labor  is  harder 
than  any  other  form  of  labor,  if  we  are  to  judge 
by  their  outpourings  of  sympathy  for  the  labor- 
ing-man. While  independence  is  to  be  desired, 
of  course,  yet  any  man,  who  has  been  through 
the  mill  of  manual  labor  and  has  subsequently 
reached  the  so-called  independent  stage,  knows 
that  the  duties  of  the  latter  are  fully  as  onerous 
as  those  of  the  former  state.  His  work,  like 
that  of  woman,  is  never  done.  The  work  of  the 
manual  laborer  is  practically  from  sun  to  sun, 
and  a  good  deal  less  nowadays. 

It  is  a  cause  for  congratulation  that  nobody 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  21 

at  Lawrence  has  suffered  for  food  and  housing. 
Not  that  the  conditions  cannot  be  improved, 
but  that  they  are  far  from  being  distressing,  ex- 
cept in  rare  and  unusual  circumstances,  and 
even  then  the  remedy  is  open  to  those  who 
desire  to  better  their  conditions.  The  great 
Western  Country  offers  a  vast  field.  Wages 
are  high  and  living  healthful  there. 

Whether  the  laborer,  or  the  clerk,  or  the 
saleswoman  can  dress  and  live  in  extravagant 
fashion  on  six  dollars,  nine  dollars,  or  fifteen 
dollars  per  week  and  wear  silks  and  marabou,  is 
not  the  question.  Many  of  them  do  dress  and 
live  extravagantly.  And  they  want  further  lux- 
ury, to  attain  which  they  demand  more  and 
more  in  the  way  of  remuneration  for  their  serv- 
ices, regardless  of  the  real  value  of  those  serv- 
ices. It  may  be  reiterated,  and  emphatically, 
that  one  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  demands 
for  increased  wages  is  to  procure  this  increased 
luxury  and  leisure.  Not  only  do  dependents 
emulate  the  style  of  living  of  more  wealthy  peo- 
ple, but  they  are  coming  to  regard  work  — 
honest  labor  —  that  which  all  of  our  ancestors 
went  through  at  some  time — as  beneath  them. 
Within  a  week  a  porter  in  a  downtown  building, 


22      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

a  youth  of  perhaps  twenty  years  of  age,  was 
complaining  about  the  nature  of  his  work  and 
the  hours  and  the  pay.  It  was  the  usual  story 
that  we  hear  on  all  sides.  The  porter  was  la- 
menting the  chances  which  he  had  lost ;  namely, 
those  of  greater  education,  and  expressed  the 
opinion  that  he  could  not  be  employed  on  any 
lower  scale  or  grade  than  at  present.  Now,  if 
that  man  had  sufficient  ambition  and  ability,  he 
would  do  what  thousands  of  others  have  done 
—  prepare  himself  for  better  work.  If  he  has 
neither  the  ambition  nor  the  ability,  what  can 
he  expect?  and  ought  it  not  to  be  made  clear 
to  him  that,  if  he  will  not  or  cannot  raise  him- 
self to  a  higher  scale,  he  could  not  have  done 
so  earlier  in  life?  "Content  is  wealth,"  said 
Socrates. 

In  one  of  the  editorials  from  which  quota- 
tions have  been  taken,  the  thoroughly  unjust 
statement  is  made  that  the  whole  argument  of 
the  writer  of  the  communication  referred  to  is 
summed  up  in  these  words:  "  Let  the  capital- 
ist alone  ;  let  him  employ  such  labor  as  he 
chooses  for  such  wages  as  he  may  choose  to 
pay.  If  any  one  objects,  let  him  starve."  Per- 
haps it  might  be  not  too  much  to  ask  that  we 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  23 

let  the  capitalist  and  the  laborer  alone ;  let  the 
former  employ  such  labor  as  he  chooses  and 
the  latter  work  as  he  chooses,  for  such  wages 
as  they  may  agree  upon.  The  article  might 
support  such  a  construction.  But  in  all  fairness, 
let  us  have  both  sides  of  the  question  and  a 
clear  understanding. 

It  is  true  that  no  reply  was  made  to  the  al- 
legations as  to  the  culpability  of  the  policemen 
at  Lawrence,  and  as  to  the  innocence  of  Ettor ; 
nor  did  the  article  take  up  the  subject  of  the 
holding-up,  by  the  authorities,  of  the  children 
who  were  to  be  sent  to  New  York  and  else- 
where for  care.  And  this  was  for  the  reason 
stated  in  the  first  letter  to  the  editor :  namely, 
that  it  is  not  for  the  newspaper  editor  or  any- 
body else  to  decide  questions  which  belong  to 
the  established  tribunals,  or  other  authorities, 
to  determine.  If  the  I.  W.  W.  had  control  of 
the  government,  these  questions  would  be  open 
to  just  such  treatment  as  the  editor  seems  to 
desire ;  that  is,  they  would  be  subject  to  the 
views  of  anybody  and  everybody,  without  any 
crystallization  of  those  views  and  without  any 
means  of  forcing  the  conclusion. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  there  is  a  question 


24      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

as  to  the  right  of  the  authorities  to  prevent  the 
parents  from  sending  their  children  out  of  Law- 
rence. The  act  was  of  very  doubtful  expediency 
and  perhaps  absolutely  illegal.  If  so,  one  has 
simply  to  bear  in  mind  that  "there  is  no  wrong 
without  a  remedy";  and  if  in  the  midst  of  the 
excitement  anybody  overstepped  the  bounds  of 
his  authority,  the  remedy  will  be  open  and 
ample,  especially  if  they  can  show  actual  damage. 
In  this  connection,  under  our  established  prin- 
ciples of  jurisprudence,  it  may  be  called  to  mind 
that  if  there  was  wrong  without  damage,  the 
remedy  is  nominal.  What  damage  can  the  par- 
ents show  in  this  case,  which  appears  to  have 
been  a  mere  technical  overstepping  of  authority  ? 
It  is  true  that  human  rights  may  have  been  in- 
terfered with,  but  who  suffered  and  how  much 
did  they  suffer,  is  the  question.  Adequate  rem- 
edy awaits. 

It  would  seem  a  fair  contention  that  if  I.  W.  W. 
agitators  had  not  stirred  up  the  workmen  to 
the  boiling-over  point,  the  shooting  would  not 
have  occurred. 

Here  are  some  of  the  extracts  from  the  con- 
stitution of  that  association.  Do  they  tend  to 
produce  riots,  dynamiting,  and  shooting?  As 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  25 

Mr.  Ettor  and  Mr.  Giovannitti  were  disciples  of 
this  creed,  did  they,  in  all  probability,  take  any 
part  in  bringing  about  the  shooting  complained 
of  at  Lawrence  ?  Does  the  reformer  subscribe 
to  these  tenets  ? 

We  will  take  any  and  all  means  to  attain  our  ob- 
ject. Right  and  wrong  does  not  concern  us.  We  will 
not  obey  the  laws.  We  will  employ  military  tactics 
to  the  fullest  extent. 

It  has  been  stated  authentically  that  tenta- 
tive overtures  were  recently  made  to  Mr.  Ettor 
by  a  well-meaning  and  unprejudiced  party ;  one 
who  desired  to  test  all  methods  of  producing 
peace  and  harmony  in  Lawrence  and  other  tex- 
tile centres.  This  man  suggested  that  perhaps 
the  mills  could  be  sold  by  the  present  owners 
and  purchased  by  the  labor  interests,  on  some 
basis  fair  to  everybody.  The  answer  is  reported 
to  have  been,  "  Buy  them  !  Why,  when  we  are 
ready  for  that,  we  will  walk  in  and  take  them  ! " 
Such  a  position  needs  very  little  comment 
among  reasoning  men  ;  but  there  are  many  who 
will  not  or  cannot  reason,  and  to  those  one  is 
tempted  to  put  this  question  :  Do  you  realize 
that  the  situation  would  be  the  same  after  such 
possession  had  been  taken  as  before — with  the 


26     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

parties  reversed?  What  would  prevent  the 
masses  of  deposed  capitalists  (capitalists  of  great 
and  of  little  means)  from  adopting  the  same  ar- 
gument and  following  the  same  line  of  action  ? 
The  I.  W.  W.  refuses  to  recognize  principles  of 
right  and  wrong.  Would  that  be  their  attitude 
if  they  should  acquire  vested  interests  ? 

Extraordinary  arguments  are  advanced  by 
theorists  and  unpractical  people  as  to  the  value 
of  manual  labor.  For  example,  it  is  held  by 
some  that  no  man  is  entitled  to  live  who  does 
not  make  something  with  his  hands.  Is  this 
possible  ?  No  janitors,  no  overseers,  no  police- 
men, no  professional  men  ?  Does  the  man  who 
fells  the  trees,  or  extracts  ore  from  the  ground, 
or  manufactures  a  boot,  make  anything  more 
important  than  the  man  who  makes  the  plans 
for  the  timber  operation  and  signs  a  check  or  a 
note  for  the  expenses  of  the  season;  or  he  who 
takes  his  chances  by  investing  his  savings  in  a 
coal-mine,  which  gives  employment  to  thou- 
sands of  miners ;  or  he  who  builds  a  factory  out 
of  the  money  he  has  avoided  spending,  thereby 
assuring  a  livelihood  to  thousands  of  workmen  ? 
Is  no  man  entitled  to  retire  on  the  savings  of  a 
lifetime?    Must   he  go  on   working   until   he 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  27 

drops,  and  then  give  up  all  he  has  laid  by  in 
the  way  of  property,  or  should  he  spend  all  he 
makes  as  he  goes  along  through  life  ? 

If  the  claim  referred  to  means  that  no  man 
is  entitled  to  live  who  does  absolutely  nothing 
except  to  spend  more  or  less  of  the  income  of 
his  capital,  it  might  pass  without  comment. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  as  has  been  stated,  such 
a  person  certainly  does  not  deprive  others  of 
the  work  which  he  might  do,  and  his  invested 
capital  does  furnish  employment  to  others.  One 
does  not  have  great  sympathy  with  the  idle 
rich,  but  it  is  not  absolutely  an  unanswerable 
argument  that  they  are  not  entitled  to  live. 

It  is  further  claimed  by  these  theorists  that 
labor  is  not  a  commodity.  It  is  a  commodity 
in  a  sense;  even  that  part  of  it  which  is  given 
in  exchange  for  the  bare  living  which  the 
world  owes  every  man. 

The  services  of  the  laborer  are  not  different 
in  this  respect  from  those  of  the  professional 
man;  from  those  of  the  skilled  artisan;  from 
those  of  the  capitalist.  These  all  have  com- 
modities to  be  bought  and  sold.  If  the  demand 
for  the  services  of  the  capitalist  falls  off,  he 
must  reduce  his  rates.  In  times  of  depression, 


28      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

the  product  of  the  artificer  is  reduced  in  price. 
If  the  doctor,  lawyer,  or  architect  cannot  earn 
enough'  to  maintain  himself  in  the  way  he 
desires,  he  must  try  for  more  patients  or 
clients  by  reducing  his  rates;  or  he  must  seek 
other  fields.  The  product  or  services  rendered 
are  commodities;  just  as  is  the  service  of 
labor. 

Material  contained  in  newspapers,  and  edi- 
torial views,  are  far-reaching,  as  everybody 
knows.  They  are  laid  before  the  thinking  and 
the  unthinking  alike,  —  those  qualified  to  weigh 
and  sift  the  subject-matter  and  those  who  are 
apt  to  take  all  such  literature  as  indisputable 
fact.  Many  people,  while  able  to  read  and  un- 
derstand the  bare  statements  as  expressed,  are 
unable  to  read  between  the  lines;  unable  to  test 
their  soundness  by  true  principles  of  politics, 
religion,  economics,  or  whatever  the  subject- 
matter  may  involve. 

The  impression  received  upon  reading  the 
original  editorial  raised  the  question:  Should 
such  views  upon  matters  so  serious  be  distrib- 
uted broadcast  among  readers,  seventy-five  per 
cent  of  whom,  at  least,  have  never  even  in- 
vestigated the  principles  of  economics?  Those 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  29 

readers  may  qualify  themselves  and  become  en- 
titled to  form  opinions ;  but  the  question  is  too 
important  to  be  used  simply  as  a  means  of  arous- 
ing prejudice. 

In  this  connection,  these  words  of  the  late 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  are  a  valuable  support:  — 

We  are  intrusting  the  fortunes  of  the  community 
and  of  the  nation  to  the  common  sense  of  the  people  of 
the  nation,  and  that  will  not  always  save.  The  common 
sense  of  the  man  with  only  a  common-school  edu- 
cation will  not  always  be  a  safe  guide.  We  see  that 
in  the  many  discussions  of  the  currency  question,  in 
the  vast  number  of  opinions  on  a  question  which  can 
be  wisely  dealt  with  only  by  experts.  We  hear  a 
self-conscious  man  say  that  his  opinion  is  as  good  as 
that  of  any  one.  There  is  in  this  country  a  lack  of 
respect  for  expert  opinion  which  is  likely  to  bring 
upon  the  country  great  disaster.  This  view  may  be 
pessimistic,  but  there  is  much  in  it  to  think  seriously 
of,  now  that  we  hear  the  cry,  "Let  the  people  rule.', 
The  words  of  the  old  Greek  philosopher,  when  no 
doubt  the  demagogue  was  working  overtime,  are  worth 
listening  to :  "  Mankind  is  a  gaping  monster,  seeking 
to  be  deceived  and  seldom  disappointed." 

To  disseminate  ideas  which  are  contrary  to 
the  beliefs  and  experiences  of  centuries,  with- 
out a  word  of  explanation,  is  apt  to  be  a  dan- 
gerous method  of  educating  or  influencing  the 


jo      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

masses.  Nothing  is  gained  by  opposing  doc- 
trines of  economics  reached  after  centuries  of 
thought  and  study,  after  turmoil  and  bloodshed 
and  reconstruction. 

A  series  of  speeches  by  President  Butler  of 
Columbia  College,  which  have  been  recently 
published  in  book  form,  and  of  which  the  title 
essay  is  "  Why  Should  We  Change  our  Form  of 
Government,"  elucidates  some  of  the  established 
principles  referred  to  in  this  review,  and  com- 
ments upon  some  of  the  modern  or  progressive 
notions  which,  if  followed,  will,  as  anybody  may 
see,  bring  us  back  to  the  original  starting-point, 
with  the  work  to  be  all  done  over  again.  As 
"The  Sun"  of  New  York  expresses  it,  "to 
adopt  a  favorite  figure  of  speech  upon  the  lips 
of  a  recent  convert  to  pure  democracy,  it  is  the 
sad  truth  that  the  initiative,  referendum,  and 
recall  make  the  flint-lock  look  like  a  new  and 
shining  weapon." 

The  address  of  Miss  Vida  Scudder,  at  a 
meeting  in  Lawrence,  probably  not  accurately 
reported,  was  in  several  places  severely  criti- 
cized. It  has,  however,  been  defended  and  ex- 
plained in  a  very  just  letter  to  the  "Boston 
Transcript"  by  John  Graham  Brooks.  From 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  31 

the  criticisms,  that  speech  might  have  been  sup- 
posed to  entertain  just  such  sentiments  as  those 
to  which  attention  is  now  being  called.  Injustice 
to  her,  and  because  it  throws  some  light  upon 
the  extent  and  character  of  the  sympathy  which 
we  all  feel  for  any  people  or  class  of  people  who 
are  in  the  slightest  danger  of  being  unfairly 
treated  or  down-trodden,  I  venture  to  quote 
from  the  speech:  — 

Only,  my  friends,  let  us  see  to  it  that  all  our  suf- 
fering be  indeed  for  justice,  for  righteousness'  sake. 
Riot,  even  under  severest  provocation,  does  not  make 
for  justice.  See  to  it,  you  citizens,  that  you  keep  an 
impartial  mind,  quick  to  compassion,  free  from  preju- 
dice, divorced  from  all  apathy  and  irresponsibility,  for 
a  great  trust  is  yours. 

And  see  to  it,  you  strikers — you  who  struggle  on 
with  the  thought  of  the  vast  army  of  all  tongues  and 
nations  in  whose  name  and  for  whose  sake  you  are 
banded  together  —  see  to  it  that  you  hold  your  task 
too  sacred  to  be  defended  by  low,  dishonorable,  or 
violent  means. 

Mr.  Brooks  writes  that,  being  present,  he 
felt,  upon  leaving  the  meeting,  that  Miss  Scud- 
der's  speech  "  from  its  first  to  final  word  was  a 
kind  of  passionate  beseeching  to  the  audience 
for  ethical  self-restraint." 


32      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

Mr.  Dooley  says:  — 

If  the  coort  rules  a  law  unconstitutional,  Tiddy  sez 
to  the  folks, "  all  ye  ought  to  do  is  to  vote  the  coort  a 
liar."   It 's  the  new  way  fur  mindin'  the  Constitution. 

Suppose  the  recall  on  decisions  should  be  given  to 
the  bleachers  whin  the  umpire  rules  against  the  home 
team  ? 

Hennessey,  I  'm  thinking  of  taken'  me  little  savin's 
and  movin'  back  to  the  ould  land  of  piece  and  quiet, 
fer  it 's  my  opinion  the  Irish  nerves  was  nivir  intinded 
fer  anny  sich  rows  as  are  broom'  over  here. 

A  well-known  Boston  paper  closes  an  edi- 
torial, entitled  "  Smashing  Civilization,"  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

The  travail  of  ages  has  gone  to  the  substitution  of 
peaceful  for  warlike  methods  of  securing  social  pro- 
gress, and  unless  human  societies  are  to  be  totally  dis- 
organized they  must  continue  to  repress  the  mistaken 
zeal — call  it "  mental  twist,"  hysteria,  or  what  you  will 
—  which  at  this  late  day  deliberately  justifies  a  return 
to  the  methods  of  savagery.  War  is  unfortunately  still 
possible  between  the  nations,  but  within  them  it  has 
been  effectually  extinguished.  The  attempt  to  revive 
it  as  an  agency  of  reform  is  an  attack  on  the  interests 
of  the  race.  The  attempt  to  promote  the  so-called 
welfare  of  a  class  or  of  a  sex  by  breaking  windows 
and  damaging  property  is  an  attempt  to  smash  civil- 
ization. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  33 

Another  Boston  publication,  under  the  title 
"The  Price  of  Ignorance,"  states,  in  part:  — 

Whether  or  not  such  deplorable  incidents  are  the 
inevitable  accompaniment  or  outgrowth  of  the  rising 
tide  of  socialism,  the  lesson  that  is  forced  home  is  the 
need  of  grappling  with  a  social  problem,  which,  ne- 
glected, involves  ultimate  revolution. 

Perhaps  the  mentality  standard  of  our  immigration 
laws,  under  which  the  vicious  and  ignorant  may  be  al- 
lowed to  spread  the  infection  of  their  degeneracy  upon 
our  civilization,  is  too  low.  Perhaps  there  should  be 
less  indifference  with  respect  to  the  principles  of  com- 
pulsory education.  In  any  event,  it  will  not  be  denied 
that  many  of  our  modern-day  ills,  more  particularly 
those  that  pertain  to  the  solution  of  our  social  and 
economic  questions,  have  their  beginnings  in  the  dis- 
torted minds  of  the  ignorant. 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  strikers  at  Lawrence,  for 
instance,  have  little  or  no  conception  of  the  great 
economic  problems  with  which  their  employers  are 
struggling  earnestly  and  conscientiously.  They  are 
told  in  the  inflammatory  language  of  the  agitator  that 
the  heels  of  the  manufacturers  are  mercilessly  grind- 
ing into  their  vitals,  and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  a 
peaceful  community  is  transformed  into  a  howling, 
lawless  mob. 

The  ignorance  of  the  millhand  is  at  the  bottom  of 
the  trouble.  He  will  not  see  the  other  side  because  in 
verity  he  cannot ! 


34      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

Such  expressions  of  opinion  (and  many  others 
could  be  furnished  on  the  subject)  indicate  that 
not  all  writers  of  prominence  agree  with  our 
radical  New  England  editor  and  his  followers. 
'  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  small  a 
minority  of  thinking  men  belong  to  that  radical 
class.  Some  day  we  may  have  it  put  to  test,  — 
by  the  ballot,  let  us  hope. 

Here  is  an  interesting  retrospect  by  the  de- 
scendant of  a  Lowell  weaver:  — 

SOME    OF    THE    THINGS    THAT    MAKE   THE 
COST   OF  LIVING   HIGH 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Herald:  — 

If  you  were  to  attend  a  socialist  meeting,  or  a  Ford 
Hall  gathering,  you  would  be  told  that  the  working- 
class  of  this  country  do  not  get  enough  to  live  and 
that  times  are  growing  worse  all  the  time,  and  more 
especially  since  the  textile  strike  in  Lawrence,  do  you 
hear  of  these  calamity  speeches.  Let 's  look  at  a  few 
facts :  It  is  recorded  that  9000  operatives  in  Lowell 
received  an  average  of  #1.50  a  week  in  1843.  1° 
1850  my  mother  was  employed  as  a  weaver  in  the 
Lowell  mills,  and  she  was  a  good  weaver,  too.  She 
made  an  average  of  $2.50  a  week  and  paid  $1.25  a 
week  for  board  and  room  in  a  corporation  boarding- 
house.  The  hours  were  long,  n  to  12  a  day.  The 
average  wage  in  Lowell  and  Lawrence  to-day  is  at 
least  four  times  as  much  as  it  was  in  1850-55. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  35 

The  average  wage  in  the  manufacturing  industry 
in  this  country  in  1850  was  $247  ;  in  1880,  it  was 
$348;  in  1900,  it  was  $437,  and  in  19 10,  it  was 
$539o  a°d  the  hours  of  labor  have  been  reduced  from 
66  and  70  in  1850  to  54  and  60  in  19 10.  So  much 
for  that.  Now  let  us  look  at  the  cost  of  living.  In 
the  city  of  Lawrence  the  workers  of  the  so-called 
"  foreign  element "  sent  to  Europe  last  year  more 
than  $700,000;  they  spent  a  million  dollars  in  the  76 
saloons,  i.e.,  the  working-class  of  that  city  spent  a 
million  for  drink,  and  another  $100,000  in  the  pic- 
ture-show houses.  For  the  nation  these  items  of  waste 
foot  up  :  $1,700  ,000,000  spent  in  the  saloons ;  $275,- 
000,000  spent  in  the  moving-picture  shows;  $135,- 
000,000  for  candy;  $500,000,000  for  tobacco;  and 
the  immigrants  sent  to  Europe  $300,000,000.  Out 
of  these  sums  the  working-class  spent  at  least  $1,300- 
000,000,  or  13  billions  in  10  years,  yet,  we  are  told 
by  sociologists  that  unless  we  have  a  radical  change, 
the  red  flag  revolution  will  engulf  us. 

The  cost  of  living  is  high,  but  it  is  high  mainly 
because  we  all  want  the  things  which  the  middle  class 
enjoyed  30  years  ago.  The  working-class  live  far 
better  than  the  middle  class  lived  50  and  75  years 
ago.  Everybody  is  glad  that  this  is  so,  and  notwith- 
standing this,  we  increased  our  savings  bank  deposits 
by  $2,000,000,000  during  the  last  10  years  and  there 
have  been  900,000  new  homes  acquired  in  this  pe- 
riod. Men  are  rising  from  the  working-class  to  the 
middle  class  and  from  the  middle  class  to  the  so-called 


36      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

wealthy  class  more  rapidly  to-day  than  ever  before  in 
the  economic  history  of  this  nation,  but  we  must  have 
sensation  and  muckraking. 
Haverhill,  April  10 

The  question  is  not  too  large  for  a  news- 
paper editor,  or  a  lawyer,  or  any  educated  man. 
But  the  solution  is  too  difficult  for  anybody, 
whether  educated  or  not,  unless  he  will  take  into 
consideration  all  of  the  factors  in  the  problem 
and  give  due  weight  to  the  teachings  of  centu- 
ries and  of  pragmatic  history.  These  burning 
questions  should  be  analyzed  and  discussed 
economically  —  scientifically  —  and  never  by 
naked  opinion. 

Nobody  in  his  right  senses  will  claim  that  the 
extravagance  of  workers  is  the  sole  reason  for  the 
demand  for  wage  increase.  Extravagance  has 
very  much  to  do  with  the  matter;  because  if 
wage-earners  insist  upon  spending  all  they  make, 
they  will  go  on  forever  demanding  more,  whether 
the  work  is  worth  it  or  not.  Of  course  there  are 
cases  of  injustice,  but  where  these  are  brought 
to  light  clearly,  they  are  in  almost  every  case 
alleviated. 

We  do  not  expect  to  pay  skilled-labor  wages 
to  ignorant  laborers.     Abnormal  and  artificial 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  37 

conditions  seldom  produce  good  results  in  any- 
thing. All  things  are  relative  and  all  things  are 
graded,  and  it  will  be  so  no  matter  what  form  of 
government,  no  matter  what  system  of  employ- 
ment. You  cannot  maintain  everybody  on  the 
same  level  under  all  conditions,  any  more  than 
you  can  make  water  run  uphill. 

The  statement  that  all  men  are  free  and  equal 
is  true  only  so  far  as  it  applies  to  the  opportunities 
open  to  #//,and  to  their  right  to  enjoy  certain  priv- 
ileges guaranteed  by  the  civic  contract.  In  all  or 
nearly  all  other  respects  all  men  are  not  free  and 
equal.  This  is  demonstrated  in  every  country 
and  under  every  form  of  government,  from  the 
savage  to  the  highest  type.  Some  men  are  in- 
ferior to  others,  and  until  they  have  made  them- 
selves equal  they  must  grade  their  value  as  citizens 
in  accordance  with  their  abilities.  Nowhere  is  this 
difference  so  clearly  shown  as  in  India,  where  the 
principle  of  caste  is  indigenous.  And  it  is  in  In- 
dia that  British  rule  is  so  strenuously  attacked ; 
— not  so  much,  indeed,  by  the  natives  of  that 
country  as  by  outside  agitators. 

We  in  the  North  make  a  great  deal  of  clamor 
about  the  treatment  of  the  negro.  A  Southerner 
recently  resigned  from  a  certain  club  in  the  North 


38      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

because  he  found  members  of  the  colored  race 
seated  in  the  same  dining-room  with  him.  When 
a  Northern  friend  was  rather  inclined  to  remon- 
strate with  him,  the  Southerner  said, "  You,  in  the 
North,  are  hypocrites  ;  you  don't  invite  negroes 
to  your  houses  and  to  your  tables,  nor  do  you 
want  them  there." 

Nothing  in  these  two  paragraphs  is  intended 
to  decry  or  underestimate  the  value  and  useful- 
ness and  respectability  of  any  man,  in  any  class, 
in  his  place.  But  all  men  are  not  free  and  equal 
for  all  purposes,  and  many  men  are  not  entitled 
to  the  same  recompense,  consideration,  or  lati- 
tude of  action  that  others  receive  and  enjoy. 
They  would  not  know  how  to  adapt  themselves 
to  conditions  which  are  the  natural  state  of  other 
men.  All  men  are  entitled  to  equal  opportuni- 
ties, so  far  as  they  are  able  to  grasp  them.  It 
maybe  true  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal, 
though  I  cannot  concede  the  proposition  jn  its 
entirety.  But  beyond  that,  certainly  the  saying 
is  absolutely  without  merit.  If  they  are  born 
free  and  equal,  it  is  because  equal  rights  and 
privileges  and  protection  are  open  to  all ;  and 
not  because  all  are  or  ever  will  be  qualified  to 
grasp  the  same  opportunities. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  39 

We  cannot  hope  to  continue  business  so  as 
to  benefit  all  people  if  we  place  on  the  very  same 
basis  brains,  enterprise,  thrift,  and  industry,  on 
the  one  side,  and  pure  manual  labor  without 
training  and  skill  and  influence,  on  the  other. 
And  the  laborer  would  suffer  most  of  all  from 
such  an  attempt. 

Could  any  one  claim  that  any  business  enter- 
prise would  succeed  as  well  without  brains  and 
energy  to  direct  it  ?  The  demand  of  the  reformer 
to-day  seems  to  be  that  the  brains  now  guiding 
such  enterprises  must  relinquish  all  rights  in  order 
that  certain  disgruntled  members  of  the  labor- 
ing-class, so-called,  may  select  other  brains.  Not 
only  that,  but  the  guidance  and  control  must 
be  relinquished  without  recompense  for  former 
service  as  founders  and  guides.  Labor  wants  a 
change  of  navigators  regardless  of  what  the 
consequence  will  be.  It  must  be  clear  to  them 
that  they  cannot  direct  the  affairs  of  enterprise. 
Therefore,  under  any  new  regime  they  must 
still  be  subject  to  somebody's  guidance.  Some- 
body must  formulate  and  execute  the  policies 
of  business.  The  ignorant  man,  he  who  per- 
forms and  can  perform  manual  labor  only,  could 
never  satisfactorily  control  and  carry  to  success 


40      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

such  policies.  Does  such  a  man  suppose  that  the 
new  navigator  will  produce  results  which  will 
give  such  control  ? 

Industries  are  run  by  brains  and  to  brains  is 
due  in  a  large  measure  the  success  of  those  in- 
dustries. When  retained  in  tangible  form  that 
success  is  wealth.  Labor  assists  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  that  wealth,  but  labor  is  not  entitled  to 
all  of  it.  To  what  extent  it  should  share  is  not 
ascertainable  by  arbitrary  rule ;  certainly  not  by 
the  ukase  of  a  socialistic  reformer. 

In  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  I 
think,  the  share  deemed  reasonable  by  econo- 
mists, and  that  which  existed,  was  about  twenty- 
two  to  twenty-five  cents  out  of  every  dollar  of 
gross  earnings.  Without  claiming  that  the  fol- 
lowing is  the  percentage  in  all  other  lines  of 
manufacturing  and  industry,  in  a  large  New 
England  railroad  every  dollar  of  gross  income 
from  all  sources  during  the  year  1 9 1 1  was  dis- 
tributed as  follows:  — 

For  Material  and  Supplies 

$  .10^  fuel  for  locomotives ; 

.02 ^  rails  and  ties; 

.18^  other  material,  supplies  and  expense; 

•04 Yz  taxes; 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  41 

.04       interest  on  debt  and  sinking-fund ; 

.11^  leases  and  rentals; 

.02        car  expense  per  diem; 

.01        office  salaries ; 

.00^  available  for  dividends; 

.44^    FOR  WAGES. 

It  would  probably  not  occur  to  the  editors  of 
radical  and  agitating  newspapers  that  they  are 
robbing  their  employees  ;  that,  as  labor  is  en- 
titled to  all  it  produces,  the  reporters  and  the 
typesetters  and  the  printer's  devil  should  get 
all  the  revenue  received  by  the  paper.  That  is 
the  principle  which  those  papers  are  advocating 
—  applied  to  other  industries,  of  course. 

Thomas  Edison  works,  it  is  reported,  from 
about  six  in  the  morning  until  midnight,  with 
two  or  three  hours  out  for  necessary  recupera- 
tion, and  he  is  reported  as  saying,  "  I  never  had 
an  idea  in  my  life;  I  have  no  imagination.  My 
so-called  inventions  already  existed  in  the  en- 
vironment—  I  took  them  out.  The  drone  lets 
them  lie  there  while  he  goes  off  to  a  baseball 
game." 

In  the  February,  191 1,  number  of  the  "At- 
lantic Monthly  "  appeared  a  noteworthy  essay 
by  Cornelia  A.  P.  Comer,  which  is  addressed  to 


42      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

all  youth  of  the  present  day  regardless  of  rank 
or  station.  While  it  should  be  read  in  its  en- 
tirety, I  have  selected  a  few  excerpts  as  appli- 
cable to  the  questions  we  are  considering.  She 
asks :  — 

Is  the  quality  of  the  human  product  really  falling 
off?  If  the  suspicion  which  runs  about  the  world  is 
true,  then  youngsters,  as  you  would  elegantly  phrase 
it,  "  It  is  up  to  you."  .   .  . 

When  the  rising  generation  goes  into  the  militia,  it 
is  —  old  officers  tell  us  —  "soft"  and  incompetent. 
Advocates  of  athletics  and  manual  training  are  doing 
their  utmost  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  make  flabby 
fastidious  bodies  which  comes  from  too  comfortable 
living ;  but  the  task  is  huge.   .   .  . 

Before  it  occurred  to  me  to  analyze  your  defi- 
ciencies, I  used  to  look  at  a  good  many  members  of 
the  rising  generation  and  wonder  helplessly  what  ailed 
them.  .  .  .  They  talked  of  themselves  as  socialists ; 
but  their  ideas  of  socialism  were  vague.  To  them,  it 
was  just  an  "  ism  "  that  was  going  to  put  the  world  to 
rights  without  bothering  them  very  much  to  help  it 
along.  They  seemed  to  feel  that  salvation  would 
come  to  them  by  reading  Whitman  and  G.  B.  S.,  or 
even  the  mild  and  uncertain  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells.  .  .  . 
Somebody  some  day  was  going  to  push  a  button,  and, 
Presto !  life  would  be  soft  and  comfortable  for  every- 
body. 

Of  socialism  in  general,  I  confess  myself  incompe- 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  43 

tent  to  speak.  It  may,  or  it  may  not,  be  the  solution 
of  our  acutely  pressing  social  problems.  But,  if  men 
are  too  cheap,  greedy,  and  sordid  to  carry  on  a  Republic 
honestly,  preserving  that  equality  of  opportunity  which 
this  country  was  founded  to  secure,  it  must  be  men 
who  need  reforming!  The  more  ideal  the  scheme  of 
government,  the  less  chance  it  has  against  the  inherent 
crookedness  of  human  nature.  In  the  last  analysis,  we 
are  not  ruled  by  a  "  government,"  but  by  our  own  na- 
tures objectified,  moulded  into  institutions.  .   .  . 

Life  is  not,  and  is  not  meant  to  be,  a  cheap,  easy 
matter.  .  .  .  It  is  a  grim,  hard,  desolate  piece  of  work, 
shot  through  with  all  sorts  of  exquisite,  wonderful 
compensating  experiences.  .   .   . 

The  unshapen  lump  of  raw  human  material  that  we 
are  cannot  take  on  lines  of  identity  without  the  ham- 
mer, the  chisel,  the  drill.   .  .  . 

We  are  obviously  here  to  be  made  into  something 
by  life.  It  seizes  and  shapes  us.  The  process  is  some- 
times very  pleasant,  sometimes  very  painful.  So  be 
it.  It  is  all  in  the  day's  work,  and  only  the  worthless 
will  try  to  evade  their  proper  share  of  either  pain  or 
pleasure. 

Everybody  in  this  world  is,  of  course,  en- 
titled to  some  recreation  and  luxury,  but  it  must 
be  recreation  in  proportion  to  his  or  her  means, 
having  in  mind  a  proper  provision  for  the 
"  rainy  day,"  which  is  another  name  for  old  age 
and  illness.  Some  people  can  provide  very  little 


44      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

in  this  way,  and,  until  succeeding  generations 
have  developed  to  a  point  where  they  are  of 
more  value  to  the  world,  that  inability  to  mate- 
rially increase  their  earning  power  must  continue. 

The  young  man  who,  on  the  threshold  of  life, 
earning  ten  or  twelve  dollars  a  week,  insists  upon 
buying  ten- cent  cigars  and  paying  an  Italian 
boot-black  to  have  his  boots  polished,  and  who 
feels  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  hire  a  "  livery 
rig"  once  a  week,  is  not  a  desirable  kind  of  de- 
velopment. "The  times  are  not  hard,  they  are 
fast,"  is  a  common  saying. 

In  a  recent  message  to  the  employees  of  the 
Rock  Island  Railroad,  President  Mudge  said 
that  a  man  who  earns  $1000  a  year  represents 
a  capital  of  $25,000.  He  compared  those  em- 
ployees with  a  locomotive  :  — 

You  may  not  have  as  much  pull  as  a  locomotive, 
but  you  ought  to  have  as  much  push ;  and  you  can 
last  a  lot  longer  and  run  a  great  deal  further  than  the 
best  engine  ever  built.  Most  of  all,  you  can  make 
yourself  constantly  worth  more,  while  the  locomotive 
is  never  worth  a  cent  more  than  it  was  the  day  it  was 
built.  It  rests  with  you  to  make  your  $25,000  valua- 
tion climb  to  $50,000,  to  $100,000,  to  $500,000. 
Select  your  food  with  care.  Treat  decently  the  body 
on  which  your  mind  depends  for  its  strength  and  san- 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  45 

ity.  Above  all,  feed  your  mind.  Like  the  engine,  you 
can't  work  unless  you  stay  on  the  rails  and  keep  where 
the  boss  can  find  you.  And  remember  that  no  call- 
boy  ever  found  an  engine  in  a  saloon,  dive,  or  other 
place  of  that  sort. 

There  is  one  important  need  of  the  times, 
and  we  have  been  neglecting  it,  to  some  extent, 
on  all  sides.  I  refer  to  Discipline. 

The  tendency  to  iconoclasm,  fostered  by  agi- 
tators and  people  who  believe  they  could  rule 
the  world  better  than  it  is  governed  by  Divine 
Providence,  has  put  a  false  and  a  lower  value 
upon  thrift  and  energy,  enterprise  and  brains. 
Relations  of  employment  or  contract,  which  of 
necessity  call  for  guidance  by  one  man  or  party 
and  obedience  by  another,  are  seriously  inter- 
fered with  by  a  growing  unwillingness  to  abide 
by  the  true  and  natural  requirements  of  such 
conditions.  This  generally  results  in  a  failure  to 
deliver  that  which  should  reasonably  be  expected 
in  the  way  of  service  or  goods.  A  domestic  serv- 
ant is  frequently  found  to  be  wasting  good  ma- 
terial. Well-known  writers  on  economics  have 
stated  that  the  amount  of  waste  in  New  York 
City,  mostly  through  this  source,  would  feed 
the  whole  of  Paris.  A  skilled  laborer  is  not  in- 


46      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

frequently  found  who,  while  agreeing  to  perform 
a  certain  piece  of  work,  deliberately,  or  through 
lack  of  training,  leaves  it  partially  undone  or 
done  in  a  shiftless  manner.  Articles  sold  by  re- 
tail concerns  are  not  always  what  they  are  re- 
presented to  be.  The  quality  of  goods  produced 
by  factories  is  often  not  up  to  the  standard.  A 
similar  criticism  may  be  made  of  the  professions. 

Self-restraint,  which  is  simply  discipline  ap- 
plied to  self,  must  be  cultivated.  And  this  sug- 
gestion is  not  intended  for  any  one  class.  I  have 
always  believed  and  frequently  stated  that  if  one 
cannot  rely  for  the  improvement  of  our  condi- 
tions upon  those  who,  by  virtue  of  their  educa- 
tion, prosperity,  and  standing,  are  qualified  to 
set  the  proper  example,  we  cannot  expect  very 
much  from  hoi  polloi.  There  must  be  training. 
Training  is  discipline.  It  is  applicable  as  well  to 
self  as  to  others  and  should  apply  to  all  classes 
alike. 

The  universe  itself  is  based  upon  a  system 
established  by  the  Creator.  We  are  all  subject 
to  that  system,  and  we  cannot  escape  it.  We 
can  facilitate  and  assist,  but  the  moment  we  op- 
pose its  operation,  we  succumb.  The  seasons, 
the  days  and  nights,  the  laws  governing  the  re- 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  47 

currence  and  alternation  of  crops,  those  govern- 
ing animal  life  —  all  are  fixed,  immutable. 

Discipline  is  natural,  not  arbitrary,  as  many- 
seem  to  suppose.  The  highest  type  of  ruler  in 
this  world,  she  who  represents  motherhood, 
commences  almost  the  moment  her  offspring  is 
born  to  exercise  discipline.  Because,  first,  it  is 
natural;  second,  it  develops  character;  third, 
some  day  that  offspring  will  need  to  understand 
how  to  transmit  that  training  to  the  succeeding 
generation. 

If  each  succeeding  generation  can  be  im- 
proved, even  though  slightly,  over  the  preced- 
ing, we  have,  to  say  the  least,  gone  a  long  way 
toward  fulfilling  man's  destiny  here  below.  If 
anybody  believes  that  the  world  is  misgoverned, 
let  him  take  but  a  square  mile  and  attempt  to 
rule  all  the  people  and  all  the  things  in  that 
small  tract,  with  their  conflicting  interests  and 
their  constant  needs. 

Nobody  should  fail  to  respect  institutions 
which  have  stood  the  test  of  time.  After  years 
of  turmoil,  the  Anglo-Saxon  people,  desiring  to 
be  freed  from  the  necessity  of  individually 
bothering  with  affairs  of  state,  selected  from 
each  of  their  districts  a  man  who  was  better 


48      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

fitted  than  the  majority  to  decide  such  ques- 
tions, and  sent  those  representatives  together 
to  form  the  WitenaQemofcor  council  of  wise 
men. 

That  institution  stands  in  England  to-day. 
There  is  no  known  trade  or  profession,  from 
the  clergy  to  the  brewery,  that  is  not  there  re- 
presented. The  interests  of  the  country  have 
grown  to  vast  proportions  and  cumbersome, 
but  the  institution  still  stands.  England  does 
not  need  a  change  in  her  form  of  government. 
No  more  does  America.  We  want  the  best 
men,  and  we  wanthonest  men,  in  office  and  in 
power:  a  proper  selection. 

The  fact  that  there  are  some  in  power  to-day 
who  are  unprincipled  (which  unfortunately  is 
undeniable)  is  not  due  to  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment; it  is  due  to  the  unwise  choice  of  re- 
presentatives. This  would  be  true  under  any 
other  form  of  government,  whether  it  be  mon- 
archic, oligarchic,  socialistic,  or  anarchistic. 

That  which  is  at  fault  to-day  is  not  funda- 
mental law;  it  is  not  the  institutions  reared 
thereon;  it  is  not  representative  government; 
no  one  of  these  need  be  overthrown  to  bring 
about  certain  needed  reforms. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  49 

"The  people  are  not  the  law  and  the  law  is 
not  the  people."  There  never  was  a  truer 
statement.  "The  law  is  the  principle  of  justice 
governing  the  people."  Law  rests  far  down 
below  all  mundane  institutions.  The  principles 
of  law  exist  regardless  of  those  institutions. 
They  are  as  inherent  and  as  fixed  as  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  physical  world,  and  in  every  case 
where  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  upset  them 
the  result  has  been  turmoil  and  wreck. 

A  method  which  is  applicable  for  one  purpose 
is  not  always  to  be  applied  for  another.  As  Pre- 
sident Butler  has  pointed  out,  imagine  all  the 
people  in  Chicago  convened  to  determine  a  de- 
tail of  legislation  or  for  the  election  of  officers, 
and  the  picture  is  simply  ridiculous.  The  old 
form  of  town  meeting  still  exists  in  many  places, 
but  as  soon  as  a  town  has  grown  into  a  com- 
mercial centre  the  exigencies  demand  a  differ- 
ent form  of  government,  namely,  a  representa- 
tive form. 

We  have  made  long  strides  in  this  country 
toward  the  amelioration  of  certain  conditions 
which  sprang  up  like  weeds  and  grew  in  spite 
of  us.  The  best  authorities  believe  that  the 
world  is  improving,  and  that  with  the  exercise 


50      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

of  a  little  self-restraint  we  shall  work  the  mat- 
ter out  satisfactorily  to  all.  But  can  anybody 
believe  that  the  constant  and  inflammatory  ut- 
terance of  doctrines,  held  by  the  great  majority 
of  students  of  history  and  economics  to  be 
untenable,  will  bring  this  about? 

A  work  on  sociology  published  in  1892,  and 
entitled  "Coming  Horrors  in  America/'  de- 
clared: "There  is  war  in  America  to-day."  Its 
vituperative  attack  on  the  increase  of  wealth 
was  and  is  insupportable.  Nor  are  all  enter- 
prises to  be  placed  on  one  level.  Agitators  are 
wont  to  cry  out  about  the  "wrongs  done  by 
octopus  formations,"  and  then  single  out  some 
one  example  as  applying  to  all.  Many  of  the 
trusts  or  combinations,  and  I  dare  say  a  great 
majority,  do  not  come  within  the  class  which 
has  wrought  injury  by  unsound,  unjust,  and 
unlawful  methods. 

Talcott  Williams,  formerly  of  the  Philadelphia 
"  Press,"  remarked  in  1887,  "One  third  of  the 
labor  to-day  is  the  creation  of  a  century  of 
American  invention  and  enterprise  under  con- 
stitutional freedom." 

Injustice  is  not  alone  to  be  found  on  the 
capitalist  side.  William  Rathbone  Greg  refers, 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  51 

for  instance,  to  an  early  movement  on  the  part 
of  labor,  having  for  its  object  to  prevent  bricks 
being  used,  excepting  those  made  within  cer- 
tain limits.  How  would  this  have  affected 
people  who  made  bricks  in  other  localities  ? 

Anybody  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read 
Charles  Beard's  description  of  labor  conditions 
in  England  in  1760,  and  will  then  note  the 
changes  which  have  since  taken  place,  —  there  and 
in  America, — and  who  will  trace  down  the  gene- 
alogies of  the  farmer  and  the  laborer  of  those 
days  to  and  through  the  numerous  branches 
of  their  descendants,  will  see  what  is  going  on 
in  the  world  more  clearly  than  by  fixing  his 
attention  in  hypnotic  fashion  solely  upon  the 
toilers  of  any  particular  period  or  locality. 
Every  laborer  may,  by  good  work,  by  carefully 
husbanding  his  resources,  and  by  opening  to 
the  succeeding  generations  the  door  of  oppor- 
tunity, bring  posterity  up  to  a  higher  level.  But 
there  is  only  one  way  to  do  it;  and  that  way 
involves  the  three  elements  enumerated:  Dili- 
gent effort,  thrift,  and  the  development  of  the 
mental  and  moral  faculties.  They  won't  all  give 
good  work.  Hence  their  usefulness  is  cut  down, 
and  their  earnings  correspondingly.  They  won't 


52      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

all  save;  therefore  it  cannot  be  avoided  that 
some  will  remain  dependents. 

It  is  encouraging,  however,  to  note  from  the 
reports  of  savings  banks  —  particularly  since 
the  establishment  of  the  postal  banks  —  that 
more  money  is  saved  to-day  in  a  large  or  small 
way  than  ever  before;  and  less  sent  to  foreign 
countries. 

Another  common  failing  is  the  tendency  to 
believe  in  luck  as  a  means  to  success.  Ninety- 
nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  the  unfortunates 
who  ignore  our  universal  rules  of  discipline  at- 
tribute their  failure  to  bad  luck. 

Luck  is  a  result,  not  a  chance  or  a  means. 
In  greater  or  lesser  degree  good  luck,  which  is 
success,  is  sure  to  follow  proper  preparation 
and  execution. 

Chance  exists  in  matters  not  governed  by 
human  agencies  ;  but  even  that  may  be  prepared 
for.  An  earthquake  is  some  part  of  the  plan  of 
the  universe.  We  know  not  what  part.  We  may 
perhaps  in  time  foretell  its  coming,  and  pre- 
vent injurious  consequences  therefrom.  A  rock 
falls  from  an  embankment  and  overturns  a  train. 
Human  agency  should  have  prevented.  Sur- 
gery will   in  time  prevent  many    deaths  and 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  53 

lengthen  many  lives,  now  utterly  beyond  its 
control. 

A  throw  of  dice  may  favor  one  or  another — 
but  given  a  perfect  set  of  dice  (which  may  be 
effected  by  human  agency)  and  constant  play, 
and  the  doctrine  of  chances  will  in  time  equalize 
the  losses  and  gains. 

Success  in  this  world  is  not  to  be  acquired 
through  the  medium  of  luck,  as  the  word  is 
commonly  used.  Some  barely  succeed  after 
hard  study  in  a  particular  line.  Others  succeed 
in  their  line  with  less  toil.  But  it  is  not  due  to 
luck,  any  more  than  it  was  luck  which  brought 
a  part  of  the  world's  population  to  the  pulpit 
and  the  forum  and  the  laboratory,  and  left  others 
in  the  fields  or  at  the  forge. 

Somewhere  in  the  line  of  our  Miltons  and 
our  Shakespeares  and  our  Lincolns  and  our 
Websters  and  our  Emersons  and  our  Lowells, 
there  was  preparation  for  a  successful  life.  And 
not  in  every  case  was  it  such  a  preparation  or 
series  of  preparations  as  we  are  wont  to  deem 
necessary  for  success. 

A  training  properly  assimilated,  a  wholesome 
life,  with  industry  and  thrift,  will  at  least  es- 
tablish a  foundation  for  posterity.  If  that  de- 


54      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

velopment  be  continued  long  enough,  we  shall 
one  day  see  a  man  or  woman  who  rises  to  the 
top  with  no  more  effort  than  is  employed  by  a 
companion  who  never  gets  beyond  the  stage  of 


"also  ran. 


The  same  opportunity  is  open  to  all  men  to 
lay  the  cornerstone  on  which  will  sometime  be 
reared  that  structure  known  as  the  successful 
man.  Preparation,  consistently  followed  through 
generation  after  generation,  will  at  some  time 
and  in  some  form  tell  its  tale. 

To  reach  success  we  must  all  be  amenable  to 
the  rule  of  Discipline.  How  many  men  who 
follow  a  laborer's  life  have  seen  companions 
strike  out  into  new  countries  and  take  up  new 
pursuits  !  Some  stick  and  succeed.  Others  fail. 
Many  return.  Why?  Because  they  were  either 
totally  unprepared  and  would  not  or  could  not 
remain  long  enough  to  learn ;  or,  as  is  so  fre- 
quently the  case,  would  not  listen  to  the  de- 
mands of  discipline  and  work  themselves  into 
better  conditions. 

Those  who  succeed]  do  not  reach  their  aim 
through  luck  —  it  is  through  discipline,  and 
sometimes  years  of  work  and  repression.  But  fol- 
lowed by  success  —  in  greater  or  lesser  measure. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  55 

Does  anybody  doubt  that  hard  work  pro- 
perly applied  will  result  in  success  ? 

If  one  does  not  know  how  to  apply  his  work, 
there  are  always  guides,  mental  and  moral,  who 
can  assist ;  and  who  will,  if  the  inquiry  be  made 
in  earnest.  There  are  many,  unfortunately,  who 
still  believe  that  they  can  succeed  by  and  through 
the  medium  of  luck. 

It  is  the  time  for  self-restraint.  The  country 
has  had  a  long  period  of  depression.  We  cannot 
cure  unsatisfactory  conditions  or  social  maladies 
by  nostrums.  We  need  real  and  genuine  doc- 
tors—  not  quacks.  We  need  honest  men  in 
office;  men  who,  having  served  and  conserved, 
are  qualified  to  lead.  Doubtless,  too,  we  need 
some  supervision  of  vast  interests  which  affect 
rich  and  poor  alike. 

It  is  a  time  for  calm,  quiet  consideration  of 
fundamental  principles.  The  arguments  of 
would-be  reformers  in  favor  of  a  certain  part 
of  socialism,  and  as  to  the  rights  of  labor,  and 
for  laws  to  fix  a  reasonable  limit  on  aggregations 
of  capital,  may  be  to  a  great  extent  concurred  in 
by  all.  We  have  already  many  of  the  best  of 
those  principles  established  and  recognized. 
Our  almshouses,  our  wards'  courts,  our  proba- 


56     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

tion  officers,  our  district  nursing  and  settlement 
work,  are  all  socialistic  in  their  very  essence. 

A  pure  democracy,  however,  would  never  suc- 
ceed. It  has  been  attempted  in  a  small  way  by 
men  of  intellect,  with  sincerity  of  purpose ;  and 
abandoned  by  them. 

The  New  York  "  Commercial  "  comments  on 
socialistic  experiment :  — 

A   LITTLE   JOURNEY    IN    SOCIALISM 

This  Milwaukee  experiment  in  socialistic  rule  was 
tried  under  conditions  as  favorable  for  the  test  as  could 
possibly  be  asked.  Mayor  Seidel  was  a  man  of  the 
highest  reputation  in  private  life,  and  he  took  office 
filled  with  determination  to  purify  the  city  administra- 
tion and  deal  honestly  by  all  men.  But  conditions  were 
too  much  for  him.  He  found,  to  his  disgust,  that  his 
socialist  fellow  office-holders  and  his  supporters  were 
as  greedy  for  the  spoils  of  office  as  the  worst  machine 
politicians  and  ward-heelers  of  the  old  parties  had  ever 
been.  He  could  not  keep  down  expenses  and  his  spec- 
ial board  of  civic  economy  was  the  most  costly  and 
useless  that  Milwaukee  ever  saw  or  paid.  He  could  get 
no  support  from  those  who  had  put  him  in  the  mayor's 
chair  unlessjie  paid  them  with  offices  or  jobs  at  the  city's 
expense.  Socialistic  ideas  did  not  work  out  in  practice. 

If  accumulation  of  capital  is  objected  to,  it  is 
only  fair  to  give  others  a  right  to  believe  as  they 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  57 

prefer  —  and  let  those  who  will  work,  save  and 
invest,  and  protect  themselves  and  their  families. 
Indeed,  protect  every  person  who  will  not  exer- 
cise thrift. 

If  reasonable  accumulations  of  capital  are  justi- 
fiable, let  the  reformer  urge  the  followers  of  so- 
cialism to  save  some  of  the  millions  wasted  in 
strikes  and  put  them  into  enterprises  which  can 
be  managed  after  their  own  methods.  This  will 
free  the  socialistic  adherents  from  the  tram- 
mels of  employment,  as  nearly  as  they  can  be 
freed. 

I  quote  again  from  the  New  York  "  Com- 
mercial": — 

If  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  wish  to  ac- 
quire the  tools  of  manufacture  and  wholly  eliminate 
capital,  they  can  try  the  experiment  at  once  without 
going  through  all  the  agony  of  strikes  and  semi-starva- 
tion. The  Lawrence  strike  cost  the  employees  or  their 
trade  organization  a  very  large  sum,  certainly  not  less 
than  half  a  million  dollars.  That  sum  would  buy  or 
build  complete  a  fairly  large  mill  in  which  the  social- 
ists could  test  the  possibilities  of  their  plan.  Their 
plan  of  campaign  is  to  keep  on  striking  until  capital  quits, 
but  they  need  not  waste  time  over  that  sort  of  a  fight. 

Some  important  trades  require  comparatively  little 
capital  for  mechanical  equipment.  The  clothing  trade 
is  one  of  these.   Let  these  socialists  save  up  a  little 


58      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

money  to  start  a  business  instead  of  a  strike.  They  can 
buy  all  the  sewing-machines  and  other  equipment 
needed  for  less  than  what  a  month  of  idleness  in  a 
strike  will  cost.  They  can  buy  goods  almost  from  hand 
to  mouth,  and,  when  they  have  finished  the  clothing, 
they  will  know  just  how  much  of  the  selling  price  be- 
longs to  labor  and  capital  combined,  for  it  will  all  be 
theirs. 

If  some  genius  in  the  band  of  workers  keeps  abreast 
of  the  fashions  and  designs  patterns  that  sell  well  they 
may  be  successful.  But  at  this  point  human  nature  is 
almost  sure  to  step  in.  That  gifted  designer  will  real- 
ize that  a  large  measure  of  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise is  due  to  the  exercise  of  his  talents.  Then,  if  he 
is  not  a  superman,  he  will  demand  a  larger  share  of  the 
profits  than  each  of  the  other  workers  in  common  gets. 
He  will  demand  the  market  price  of  his  work  and  will 
go  elsewhere  if  his  demands  are  refused.  That  is  some- 
thing with  which  these  dreamers  do  not  reckon  now, 
but  they  will  find  out  that  all  men  are  not  equal,  and 
that  some  are  worth  more  than  others,  just  as  capital 
has  done,  before  they  have  been  in  the  business  very 
long. 

A  band  of  socialists  might  easily  start  a  silk  mill  on 
this  plan.  One  or  two  good  dress  patterns  that  caught 
the  fancy  of  the  women  would  make  them  prosperous 
for  the  time  being.  These  successful  patterns  would 
be  the  survival  of  the  fittest  of  a  large  number.  But  in 
the  next  season  if  the  best  selling  patterns  were  again 
designed  by  the  man  whose  work  had  scored  a  hit  be- 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  59 

fore,  his  opinion  of  his  value  would  rise  and  he  would 
cease  to  be  a  socialist,  so  far  as  consenting  to  an  equal 
distribution  of  profits  is  concerned. 

There  are  many  trades  in  which  the  experiment  can 
be  tried.  Success  would  be  welcome,  for  the  ideal  state 
of  society  is  one  in  which  all  work  and  receive  the  full 
fruits  of  their  labor.  But  the  world  has  never  yet  got 
along  without  the  directing  mind,  and  the  world  has 
seen  few  leaders  who  were  content  with  private's  pay 
for  very  long.  Clarence  Darrow,  the  favored  counsel 
of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  for  years,  was 
careful  to  get  his  hands  on  the  fifty  thousand  dollar  re- 
tainer fee  before  the  McNamara  trial  began.  That  is 
why  applied  socialism  is  an  impossibility.  It  conflicts 
with  human  nature. 

A  prominent  Boston  paper  suggests  an 

I.  W.  W.  COLONY 

There  should  not  be  objection  if,  as  reported,  the 
I.  W.  W.  propose  to  cross  the  Mexican  line  and  set- 
tle in  Lower  California  for  the  purpose  of  trying  to  put 
in  operation  their  special  plans  as  to  industry  and  gov- 
ernment. Let  them  form  their  own  community  and 
achieve,  if  they  can,  u  an  equal  division  of  toil  and  pro- 
fits "  in  accordance  with  their  ideals. 

The  community  would  be  a  social  experiment  in- 
teresting for  the  instruction  of  the  world.  Its  opera- 
tion along  social  and  industrial  lines  would  be  given 
due  publicity  and  an  accurate  idea  could  be  formed 
by  the  public  as  to  the  practical  value  of  the  plan. 


60      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

We  might  endeavor  to  convince  some  wealthy 
philanthropist  that  such  an  experiment  would  be 
worth  while ;  prevailing  upon  him  to  provide 
the  funds  necessary  to  establish  such  a  colony. 

Every  fair-minded  person  recognizes  a  labor 
union  as  an  institution  entirely  as  justifiable  as 
a  partnership  or  a  corporation  or  an  insurance 
company.  A  socialistic  colony  would  be  granted 
full  consideration  by  the  world.  We  have  rather 
drastic  laws  concerning  aggregations  of  capital 
—  perhaps  not  yet  applied  at  just  the  right 
turn  of  the  wheel  or  perhaps  not  yet  applied 
rigidly  enough.  We  can  better  the  laws  and 
they  will  be  bettered;  but  in  the  evolution 
thereof  is  it  not  wiser  to  leave  out  irritating 
remedies  and  inflammatory  utterances  ?  See  how 
this  uprising  against  discipline  is  affecting  not 
only  the  working-man  but  the  growing  genera- 
tions. Here  are  two  boys  in  California,  aged 
fifteen  and  thirteen,  who  murdered  their  father, 
took  all  the  money  from  his  pockets,  loaded 
the  body  on  a  mud-sled,  and  hauled  it  home. 
Both  admitted  that  their  father  had  been  kind 
to  them  and  that  they  had  no  reason  to  kill  him 
except  that  he  had  compelled  them  to  go  to 
school,  and  "  they  were  tired  of  being  bossed  I" 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  61 

What  would  happen  if  in  any  large  city  the 
crowds  at  the  street  crossings  were  at  the  mercy 
of  teamsters  and  drivers,  instead  of  being  pro- 
tected by  the  system  of  discipline,  now  common 
enough,  which  places  traffic  subject  to  instant 
check  simply  by  the  raising  of  a  policeman's 
hand? 

Where  everybody  is  attempting  to  govern, 
there  is  no  discipline  and  no  self-restraint,  and, 
naturally,  no  progress. 

As  Mr.  Price  Collier  says,  in  his  admirable 
book,  "The  West  in  the  East,"  at  page  395, 
chapter  on  China:  — 

One  has  only  to  see  something  of  these  vast  stretches 
of  territory  without  railroads,  without  telegraph  offices, 
and  with  few  post-offices,  to  learn  how  much  we  owe 
to  our  own  railroads  for  their  efficiency  as  moral 
agents.  Leaving  out  of  the  count  any  question  of 
commerce,  the  United  States  to-day  would  be  a  great 
federal  political  and  moral  chaos  without  its  railroads ; 
and  yet  I  have  never  heard  them  alluded  to  even  as 
having  any  ethical  value.  It  is  right  to  debate  these 
questions  whether  in  a  republic  or  in  China.  The 
value  of  the  debate,  however,  depends  altogether  upon 
the  tone  and  temper  of  the  discussion.  I  believe  in 
insurgency.  Insurgency  is  the  only  political  or  social 
purgative  of  any  value  in  a  democracy ;  but  the  insur- 
gent must  be  neither  a  fanatic  nor  a  fakir ;  he  is,  alas, 


62      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

all  too  often  one  or  the  other ;  and  America  has  suf- 
fered of  late  from  a  veritable  plague  of  left-handed 
Catos.  Therefore,  I  counsel  my  readers  to  adopt 
my  method.  As  an  observer,  as  a  traveller,  as  a  stu- 
dent, I  know  of  no  instrument  of  criticism  so  helpful 
as  sympathy.  You  must  like  a  man  to  get  out  of 
him  the  best  he  has  to  give.  Mere  denunciation  is  a 
weapon  of  the  ethical  age,  of  the  Eocene  lemur,  and 
the  calcareous  sponge. 

The  insurgent  must  be  neither  a  fanatic  nor  a  fakir! 

The  present  turmoil  in  political,  sociological 
and  commercial  fields  is  at  least  partly  due  to 
the  fanatical  reformer.  Killing  the  goose  that 
lays  the  golden  eggs  is  not  the  only  way  to 
demonstrate  short-sightedness ;  —  it  is  enough 
if  she  is  chased  so  hard  she  will  not  lay.  What 
should  we  get  if  these  agitators  had  full  sway  ? 

What,  for  example,  of  the  dogma  so  often 
used  by  them  :  that  human  rights  must  be  put 
above  property  rights.  This  means,  I  presume, 
that  the  rights  of  the  men  who  work  by  hand 
are  paramount  at  all  times,  in  all  ways,  and  for 
all  purposes,  to  the  rights  of  the  men  who  earn 
their  living  by  their  brains.  Is  this  distinction 
sound?  Are  the  rights  of  the  laborer  para- 
mount to  all  others  ?  Are  not  property  rights 
human  rights? 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  63 

Suppose  a  carpenter,  for  example,  has  been 
energetic  and  thrifty,  and  has  laid  aside  enough 
money  to  build  and  provide  his  family  with  a 
home.  Now  suppose  a  recent  arrival  from  a 
foreign  shore  who  has  done  the  manual  work 
for  this  householder  demands  as  of  right  to 
share  his  house  with  him.  Would  the  principle 
hold  true  that,  inasmuch  as  the  recent  arrival 
has  done  all  the  work,  he  is  entitled  as  of  right 
to  be  taken  in  and  indefinitely  housed  ?  This 
conclusion  would  seem  to  arise  from  the  con- 
tention that  the  product  of  the  laborer  be- 
longs, all  of  it,  to  him.  The  householder,  I  dare 
say,  would  contend  that  the  product  of  his 
former  labor,  that  which  he  has  saved  and  in- 
vested in  a  home,  still  belonged  to  himself. 

If  an  appeal  to  charity  were  at  the  basis  of 
the  demands  of  these  agitators,  we  should  have 
a  slightly  different  problem,  but  their  demands 
are  based  upon  presupposed  inherent  right.  Per- 
haps some  one  of  them  will  show  what  the  rights 
and  duties  are  in  the  case  just  cited.  Should  the 
carpenter  share  his  new  house  with  the  laborer 
or  should  he  give  it  up  to  him  entirely  ? 

Put  a  wise  and  thrifty  man  without  capital  on 
virgin  soil  and  he  will  find  the  tools  to  develop 


64      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

it.  What  does  he  do  with  his  first  crop  ?  Fol- 
lowing true  business  instinct,  after  satisfying  the 
temporary  needs  of  himself  and  his  family,  he 
lays  aside  the  surplus,  and  founds  his  capital. 
The  next  year  he  perhaps  hires  some  labor  and 
increases  the  production,  and  increases  his  cap- 
ital. In  time  he  has  enough  laid  by  to  last  him 
through  life.  Does  that  capital  belong  to  those 
who  may  have  assisted  him  for  hire  ? 

Suppose  with  those  savings  the  farmer  builds 
a  railroad  through  his  farm  and  to  the  market 
town.  Leaving  out  all  question  of  dishonesty 
and  graft,  and  assuming  simply  a  road  a  few 
miles  long,  enough  to  enable  the  people  along 
its  line  to  market  their  produce,  and  assuming 
no  municipal  aid  and  no  bonds  or  stocks  issued ; 
does  that  railroad  belong  to  the  men  who  actu- 
ally did  the  laying  of  the  rails,  and  who  took 
wages  therefor  because  they  had  not  the  brains, 
ability,  and  perseverance  to  do  as  did  the  pioneer 
of  the  country,  the  founder  of  the  railroad?  If 
to  the  laborers,  do  you  expect  to  have  many 
railroads  built?  If  to  the  investor,  then  what 
about  the  principle  of  all  wealth  belonging  to 
the  laborer? 

We  are  told  by  certain  theorists  that  wealth, 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  65 

the  product  of  certain  elements,  belongs  all  of  it 
to  labor.  These  theorists  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  factors  of  production  of  to-day's  wealth  may 
have  existed  in  one  person.  Take  the  case  of 
the  individual  who  starts  his  own  factory  and  by 
himself  builds  up  a  business  which  results  in 
the  employment  of  thousands  of  others.  Take 
Edison,  who,  by  means  of  brains  and  hard  work, 
has  created  devices  which  will  benefit  the  world 
as  long  as  it  lasts.  Does  the  property  which 
represents  the  investment  of  the  earnings  of 
those  two  men  belong  all  of  it  to  labor  ?  It  was 
created  by  brains  and  energy  combined  with 
hard  work,  but  it  was  not  and  never  could  have 
been  created  by  labor  alone. 

Labor  does  not  create  all  wealth.  It  is  due 
to  brains  and  labor  ;  generally  assisted  by  capi- 
tal, which  is  the  accumulation  of  brains  and 
labor  previously  applied.  So  the  proposition 
resolves  itself  into  this  :  brains  and  labor  create 
wealth  ;  brains,  labor,  and  wealth  combined  cre- 
ate more  wealth  ;  and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

If,  when  enterprises  are  commenced,  labor 
should  state :  "We  shall  claim  the  entire  result 
of  this  combination  of  brains  and  labor  and 
capital,"  does  the  social  reformer  or  anybody 


66      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

else  believe  that  capital  and  brains  would  con- 
tinue hand  in  hand  with  labor?  The  country 
would  go  on  without  those  investments  ;  would 
be  just  that  much  less  wealthy ;  or  at  least 
capital  and  brains  would  furnish  their  own  la- 
bor. 

Agitators  are  demanding  that  labor  shall  be 
the  sole  judge  of  who  shall  work  and  how  much 
they  shall  work,  and  how  much  they  shall  re- 
ceive as  their  share  of  the  product.  In  other 
words,  they  say,  "  Mr.  Brains,  you  continue  to 
conduct  this  business  and  we  will  say  how  much 
we  will  give  you  as  your  share." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  link  connecting  cap- 
ital and  labor  is  in  every  way  a  contractual  one. 
And  that  means  a  mutual  relation ;  an  agree- 
ment between  two  or  more  parties. 

Let  us  have  something  definite,  then,  in  the 
way  of  a  plan  to  reconcile  the  differences  ex- 
isting between  these  two  parties.  Let  us  be 
told  what  are  the  demands ;  what  are  the  limits ; 
what  is  a  fair  division ;  what  is  an  unfair  accu- 
mulation. Let  us  be  shown  how  we  can  adopt 
any  new  system  with  justice  to  all.  Then,  and 
only  then,  can  anybody  determine  whether  it  is 
desirable  to  combine  his  brains  with  the  labor 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  67 

of  others,  or  preferably  to  combine  them  with 
his  own  labor  as  was  done  in  old  colony  times. 

And  right  here,  as  has  before  been  observed, 
arises  much  of  the  trouble  of  the  present  time. 
The  author  has  heard  of  but  one  man  who  ex- 
pressed himself  definitely  on  the  point  of  what 
would  be  a  reasonable  demand  by  laboring-men. 
One  case  came  to  his  attention,  quite  recently, 
where  a  laborer  stated  that  when  he  should  be 
able  to  work  "  five  hours  a  day  for  five  dollars 
a  day,  five  days  in  the  week,"  he  thought  he 
might  be  satisfied.  And  this  estimate  was  made 
without  reference  to  the  age,  size,  and  precari- 
ousness  of  the  business;  or  its  gross  earnings; 
or  the  number  of  employees ;  or  the  fact  that 
the  work  performed  by  this  particular  man  was 
purely  manual. 

Mr.  John  Beattie  Crozier,  in  his  Reconstruc- 
tion of  Political  Economy,  entitled  "  The  Wheel 
of  Wealth,"  at  page  491,  says  :  — 

The  question  of  Value,  even  on  its  purely  product- 
ive side,  is  not  one  of  how  many  units  of  time  you 
are  at  work,  but  of  how  many  units  of  product  you 
can  turn  out  in  a  given  time  —  quite  a  different  mat- 
ter. For  it  is  the  units  of  product  in  a  given  time  which 
alone  the  capitalist  who  is  entering  on  any  industrial 
enterprise  has  to  consider  in  framing  his  estimates ;  and 


68      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

it  is  precisely  what  the  labourers  would  themselves 
have  to  consider  if  they  abolished  the  capitalists  to- 
morrow, and  owned  and  worked  the  land,  machinery, 
railways,  and  other  instruments  of  production  them- 
selves ;  —  as  they  would  soon  discover  when  they  en- 
tered into  competition  with  other  nations  for  the  world's 
trade,  however  much  they  might  be  content  at  home 
to  share  the  product  between  themselves  according  to 
the  mere  time  of  labour  spent  on  it.  For  observe,  if 
the  same  product  could  be  turned  out  by  a  newly  in- 
vented machine  in  half  the  time  that  they  would  take 
to  make  it,  by  what  human  device  could  they  sell 
their  product  in  the  open  market  unless  they  consented 
to  sell  it  at  half  its  former  price  ?  And  what  would 
this  mean  but  that  they  would  have  now  to  accept 
half  the  wages  for  their  labour-time  that  they  were 
getting  before  ?  They  would  have  been  "  exploited,"  in 
a  word,  by  the  new  machine  which  the  inventor  had 
sold  to  a  rival  nation,  as  neatly  and  effectually  as  if  it 
had  been  the  hated  capitalists  themselves  who  had 
done  it.  And  if  they  still  insisted  on  having  their  pound 
of  flesh  whatever  should  befall,  and  proceeded  next 
to  put  the  thumb-screw  on  the  inventor  of  the  machine 
to  force  him  to  give  it  over  to  them  instead  of  to  their 
rivals,  on  the  usual  terms  of  the  "  labour-time  "  he 
had  spent  on  it,  and  no  more,  they  would  now  be  ex- 
ploiting the  inventor  in  turn  as  much  as  ever  the  cap- 
italists had  exploited  them.  But  if  the  inventor,  de- 
frauded of  his  due,  should  strike  work  and  refuse  to 
invent,  and  they  should  then  proceed,  like  King  John, 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  69 

to  metaphorically  "  draw  his  teeth  "  for  him  one  by- 
one  until  he  consented  to  present  them  with  the  con- 
tents of  his  brain,  how  would  their  tyranny  differ  from 
that  of  the  capitalist-masters  under  whom  they  now 
groan  and  against  whom  they  cry  to  Heaven  for  jus- 
tice ?  But  let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  For  did  they 
now  turn  round  and  give  back  to  the  inventors  and 
brain-workers,  in  honour,  authority,  prestige,  and  es- 
teem, what  they  had  expropriated  from  them  in  wealth, 
they  would,  in  my  judgment,  have  struck  on  a  con- 
stitution of  economic  society  as  nearly  perfect  as  on 
this  side  of  the  millenium  we  are  ever  likely  to  see. 
They  would  then  have  given  their  really  "great  men," 
in  Carlyle's  sense  of  the  term,  the  place  of  honour 
and  initiative.  But  would  they  do  this  ?  Not  they :  on 
the  contrary,  they  would  give  the  chief  seats  at  their 
feasts  to  the  "  wind-bags "  and  coiners  of  phrases, 
the  platitudinarians,  and  be-puffed  mediocrities, — 
especially  if  they  were  good  "  sportsmen,"  footballers, 
cricketers,  or  what-not,  as  well,  —  and  that,  too,  in 
the  really  sincere  belief  that  these  were  their  "  great 
men."  For  in  themselves  the  miscellaneous  masses 
of  men  in  any  nation  are  nothing,  a  tail  of  ciphers 
merely;  they  can  imagine  nothing,  invent  nothing,  do 
nothing  great,  however  much  they  may  beat  their 
brains  for  it ;  —  this  is  the  prerogative  of  individuals 
alone,  who  are  born  in  every  rank,  and  can  come  only 
by  what  the  theologians  call  "  the  Grace  of  God." 
Were  you  to  pack  all  the  ordinary  chess-players  of 
the  world  into  the  Albert  Hall,  not  all  their  combined 


7o      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

heads  put  together,  with  their  vote  taken  on  each 
move  before  it  was  made,  could  get  even  within  sight 
of  a  "  draw  "  from  one  of  the  great  masters  of  the 
game.  And  it  is  the  same  with  the  game  of  War,  of 
Poetry,  of  Music,  of  Art,  of  Mathematics,  of  Philo- 
sophy, of  Religion,  or  of  intellectual  penetration  gen- 
erally in  any  department  of  thought  or  life  ;  or  even, 
if  you  will,  down  to  billiard-players,  cricketers,  and 
the  really  great  "  sportsmen  "  in  every  line.  The  great 
players  are  always  individuals,  always  uniques,  with 
unbridgeable  gulfs  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
world ;  they  are  the  only  dynamical  forces  of  the  world ; 
the  rest  are  but  mere  statical  accompaniments  and 
chorus,  mere  ballast  to  keep  the  ship  steady,  mere 
critics,  like  those  who  surround  a  cricket  or  football 
field,  with  just  ability  enough  to  decide  on  the  merits 
of  the  great  players,  but  not  able  to  play  themselves, 
and  whose  function  it  is  either  to  hiss  or  applaud.  So 
that  if  in  this  game  of  Industry  any  nation  were  so 
rash  as  to  turn  out  the  men  who  discover,  invent,  or- 
ganize, and  legislate  for  its  future,  or  to  rob  them  of 
their  just  rewards,  and  to  put  a  miscellaneous  herd 
of  navvies,  coal-heavers,  and  ordinary  workmen  in 
their  place,  it  would  speedily  find  itself  overrun,  routed, 
and  reduced  to  a  tributary  and  dependent  position  by 
the  first  great  nation  that  came  along,  which,  like  Ja- 
pan, gave  to  its  great  men  a  free  hand.  And  this 
brings  us  at  once  to  the  crux  of  the  Marxian  Social- 
ism, both  as  to  its  truth  and  its  falsity.  Its  falsity  con- 
sists in  its  not  seeing  that  while  the  workmen  are 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  71 

exploited  directly  by  the  capitalists  who  own  the  pis- 
tols and  pull  the  triggers,  they  are  really  made  to  stand 
and  deliver  by  the  pistols,  —  that  is  to  say,  by  the 
machinery,  —  which  can  do  the  work  of  thousands 
of  men  in  a  given  unit  of  time ;  and  that  this  is  the 
work  of  the  great  scientists,  inventors,  and  organizers, 
and  not  of  the  capitalists  or  of  the  workmen  them- 
selves ;  and  that  if  you  are  going  to  raise  the  question 
of  justice,  according  to  the  ordinarily  accepted  stand- 
ards, it  is  to  these  that  the  "  surplus  product"  belongs. 

It  has  been  suggested  many  times  that  busi- 
ness and  politics  should  be  divorced.  The  same 
remedy  would  facilitate  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion we  are  now  considering.  And  we  might 
go  further  and  remove  it  from  the  field  occupied 
by  that  extraordinary  class  of  deep  thinkers,  the 
fanatical  agitators. 

No  one  of  these  critics  of  the  times  seems  to 
have  provided  a  practical  remedy  for  that  of 
which  they  complain,  viz.,  the  increasing  dis- 
parity between  capital  and  labor. 

Assuming  that  their  complaint  is  well  founded, 
and  that  natural  developments  and  the  influence 
of  trade  unions  are  not  sufficiently  effective,  it 
remains  to  seek  some  new  method  for  lessening 
this  breach. 

Human  nature  cannot  be  changed  greatly, 


72      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

except  as  it  is  improved.  Labor  will  always  exist 
in  some  form  and  to  some  extent.  It  seems  al- 
most useless  to  attempt  to  bring  about  the  desid- 
eratum by  regulations  aimed  at  the  producing 
end.  The  only  way  in  which  wages  can  be  much 
further  increased,  in  nearly  all  cases  to-day,  is  by 
a  higher  scale  of  prices  for  the  production.  And 
that  scale  will  depend  upon  the  demand  for  that 
production.  When  prices  soar  to  a  point  where 
demand  ceases,  the  point  of  absorption  is 
reached. 

Goldwin  Smith,  in  his  little  treatise  on  "  La- 
bour and  Capital,"  published  in  1907,  very  aptly 
remarks :  — 

The  capitalist,  it  is  important  to  observe,  though 
the  organizer,  director,  and  paymaster,  is  not  the  real 
employer.  The  real  employer  is  the  purchaser  of  the 
goods,  who  cannot  be  forced  by  any  strike  or  pressure 
to  give  more  for  the  goods  than  he  chooses  and  can 
afford.  Carried  beyond  a  certain  point,  therefore,  pres- 
sure for  an  increased  wage  must  either  fail  or  break 
the  trade. 

And  he  further  reminds  us,  that  labor  by 
its  constant  demands  is  increasing  the  cost  of 
living  to  itself  as  well  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
public. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  73 

You  will  never  succeed  in  an  arbitrary  de- 
mand for  higher  wages  after  you  reach  the  nat- 
ural point  of  absorption.  You  can  form  your  own 
colonies  and  found  your  own  industries ;  and, 
if  you  have  the  good  faith  and  charity  which  you 
demand  in  others,  you  may  succeed.  The  his- 
tory of  cooperative  effort  does  not  show  invari- 
able success.  And  you  must  not  overlook  the 
stern  fact  that  there  are  three  elements  necessary 
to  the  creation  of  wealth  :  production ;  surplus 
commodities ;  and  a  purchaser  for  the  surplus. 
You  are  going  too  far  when  you  demand  that 
industries  already  established  shall  be  set  back 
some  centuries;  and  that  the  earnings  of  others 
who  have  preceded  you  shall  be  applied  to  the 
founding  of  your  colonies.  In  all  fairness,  you 
cannot  walk  in  and,  without  due  process  of  law, 
arbitrarily  take  possession  of  property  which 
other  citizens  have  acquired. 

You  can,  however,  tax  wealth.  You  must  free 
wealth-producing  property  from  heavy  burdens 
of  taxation  and  let  the  weight  fall  elsewhere. 
Otherwise,  you  are  stifling  enterprise  and  thrift, 
just  as  when  you  over-regulate  the  actual  ele- 
ments of  production.  And  it  is  not  enough,  in 
any  form  of  taxation,  merely  to  provide  funds 


74      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

for  government  uses.  Those  funds  must  be  in- 
telligently devoted  to  the  greatest  needs  of  the 
people. 

In  various  parts  of  the  world,  provisions  such 
as  succession  taxes  and  the  meretricious  income 
tax,  have  provided  a  means  for  partially  pre- 
venting great  accumulations  of  wealth.  But 
that  alone  does  not  seem  fully  to  answer  the 
demands  of  the  reformer.  Because  of  the  fact, 
probably,  that,  while  one  extreme  is  cut  down, 
the  other  is  not  correspondingly  or  sufficiently 
uplifted. 

There  is  no  panacea,  doubtless,  for  all  of  the 
troubles  of  the  civic  body.  No  one  remedy  will 
suffice.  Gradually  to  allay  irritation,  by  methods 
carefully  considered  in  the  full  light  of  reason, 
is  the  most  we  can  hope  to  do  in  the  line  of 
social  therapeutics. 

But  I  venture  to  ask  the  Reform-Agitator 
if  there  might  not  be  some  advantage  gained 
for  the  cause  by  changing  the  point  of  attack. 
By  partially  abandoning  the  onslaught  upon  the 
agents  of  production,  and  upon  the  existing 
method  of  distribution  of  profits,  and  by  taking 
up  the  question  of  the  uses  of  those  profits. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  75 

Both  capital  and  labor  to-day  contend  that 
they  respectively  do  not  receive  the  share  to 
which  they  are  entitled  out  of  joint  earnings. 
Suppose  the  question  of  division  of  earnings  be 
left  to  agreement  of  the  parties.  Capital  freed 
from  unnecessary  stigma.  Labor  represented  by 
the  Unions.  Both  influenced  by  the  natural  law 
of  supply  and  demand ;  and  both  protected  at 
all  times  by  State  and  Federal  Commissions. 
And  suppose  we  consider  the  effect  of  legislation 
tending  to  regulate  unwarranted  and  unwise  use 
of  the  shares  received  by  each.  Indeed,  the  use 
of  wealth  in  general. 

It  can  be  assumed  that  no  one  will  disagree 
as  to  the  disadvantage  of  property  and  pecuniary 
waste,  either  by  government  or  individual.  The 
elimination,  by  rational  legislative  methods,  of 
unnecessary  waste,  might  be  made  a  very  strong 
factor  in  the  improvement  and  uplifting  of  labor 
conditions.  I  do  not  for  one  moment  mean  to 
advocate  the  establishment  of  sumptuary  laws, 
strictly  speaking ;  i.e.,  laws  covering  all  articles 
of  consumption,  or  all  expenses  of  living. 

For  present  purposes  it  may  be  left  to  the 
agitator  himself,  relying  on  his  clear  understand- 
ing and  good  faith  in  the  premises,  to  say  to 


76     WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

what  extent  labor  ought  to  protect  itself  and  be 
protected  in  the  line  of  economy  of  living.  As 
to  capital,  while  I  believe  that  it  does  not  in  all 
cases  receive  too  great  a  share  of  the  profits  of 
production,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  claim  that  it 
wastes  altogether  too  much  of  that  share.  To 
the  maxim,  "  It  is  just  to  tax  the  wealthy  in 
proportion  to  their  wealth,',  I  would  add,  "  And 
it  is  just  to  tax  them  in  accordance  with  the  way 
in  which  they  use  that  wealth." 

Can" we  save  a  part  of  the  wealth  now  wasted 
and  utilize  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  as  a 
whole,  and  particularly  the  laboring-class  ?  We 
can  do  it,  certainly.  A  higher  rate  of  taxation 
on  luxuries  would  diminish  the  use  of  that  kind 
of  property ;  which  use  destroys  just  so  much 
of  the  product  of  labor  and  capital — just  so 
much  wealth.  And,  at  the  same  time,  the  in- 
come received  from  the  tax  levied  on  such  lux- 
uries as  might  still  be  used  could  form  a  very 
useful  fund. 

Money  not  spent  in  that  way  would  naturally 
drift  into  investment  channels.  Many  people 
would  be  deterred,  to  some  extent,  from  falling 
into  extravagant  ways  of  living. 

Of  course,  the  taxation  of  luxuries  falls  within 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  77 

that  class  of  legislation  known  as  "  sumptuary 
laws."  Yet,  if  restricted  to  pure  luxuries,  no 
real  injury  perhaps  would  come  to  any  person 
by  such  a  measure.  Luxury  was  styled  by  one 
of  the  great  English  essayists  as  "artificial 
poverty." 

There  seems  to  be  no  valid  reason  why  laws 
concerning  the  wasting  of  property  should  not 
be  applicable  generally  as  well  as  specially.  We 
have  always  had  provisions  whereby  an  indi- 
vidual can  be  restrained  and  placed  under  guar- 
dianship by  a  chancery  court,  upon  its  being 
evident  that  he  is  squandering  his  money  and 
is  likely  to  become  a  charge  upon  the  com- 
munity. 

Not  for  precisely  the  same  reason,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  preventing  waste  to  the  community 
and  preserving  the  common  wealth,  pure  lux- 
uries might  very  legitimately  be  the  object  of  a 
carefully  considered  system  of  taxation. 

The  result  of  increased  taxation  on  articles 
which  have  no  particular  usefulness  —  such  as 
wines  and  liquors  and  pleasure  vehicles,  or  any 
other  commodity  which  disappears  with  the  use 
thereof,  leaving  nothing  but  the  satisfaction  of 
having  had  it — might  show  an  advantage  to 


78      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

all  classes,  even  to  the  capitalist;  certainly  to 
the  State  and  the  people  as  a  whole  ;  and  to  the 
laboring-classes,  beyond  question,  if  the  funds 
raised  by  taxation  were  properly  used  after  be- 
ing collected. 

There  would  be  no  material,  permanent  bene- 
fit to  labor  from  the  mere  increase  in  taxes  col- 
lected. It  would  be  of  no  lasting  benefit  to  pay 
it  out  in  wages.  It  might  answer  the  demands 
of  the  reformer  if  the  funds  could  be  invested 
in  profitable  industries  with  State  and  Labor  as 
employer  and  employee,  respectively.  And  there 
would  be  an  increase  in  the  general  wealth. 
Those  industries  might  be  confined  at  first  to 
the  production  of  certain  actual  necessities  of 
life. 

Such  an  arrangement  would  create  a  com- 
petition between  individual  and  state  enter- 
prises, which  might  work  to  the  advantage  of 
both,  and  doubtless  to  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
sumer. 

It  is  well  known  that  state  ownership,  wher- 
ever it  constitutes  a  monopoly,  is  thoroughly 
unsatisfactory.  Complaints  are  frequent  enough, 
nowadays,  regarding  the  quality  of  commodities 
and  services,  made  and  rendered  by  individuals. 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  79 

By  a  system  which  would  put  both  state  and 
individual  producers  on  their  merits,  we  might 
eliminate  some  of  the  defects  of  state  owner- 
ship, make  costs  of  production  and  prices  of 
commodities  more  stable,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
obtain  better  values. 

It  remains  to  be  seen,  of  course,  what  the 
attitude  would  be  of  the  numerous  people  af- 
fected by  such  an  arrangement.  Production  and 
consumption  would  be  decreased  in  the  case  of 
wines  and  liquors  and  cigars ;  automobiles  and 
carriages ;  silks  and  gems.  The  breeding  and 
sale  of  horses  and  dogs  and  fine  grades  of  cat- 
tle would  fall  off.  And  preserves  for  game  and 
birds  and  fish  would  be  neglected.  And  all  the 
pursuits  that  appertain  to  the  few  illustrations 
given  above  would  be  materially  affected.  The 
thousands  and  thousands  of  people  who  derive 
their  living  from  those  various  industries ;  the 
grape  and  tobacco  growers  and  their  assistants; 
workmen  in  automobile  and  carriage  factories; 
miners  of  precious  stones;  lapidaries;  hunters 
and  taxidermists;  and  retail  dealers  in  all  these 
lines;  as  well  as^transportation  companies,  which 
are  fed  upon  those  commodities  —  all  would 
be  affected. 


80      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

Can  they  be  reconciled  ? 

You  must  not  forget  the  interests  of  those 
people  who  use,  and  those  who  produce,  the 
articles  aimed  at  in  the  plan  outlined.  If  a  per- 
son knows  that  he  is  not  to  be  allowed  to  de- 
rive a  certain  amount  of  satisfaction  from  the 
results  of  the  expenditure  of  his  energies,  he 
will  not  apply  himself  with  the  same  ardor  to 
accomplish  and  attain  those  results. 

The  existence  and  development  of  all  life  in  nature 
depends  upon  the  persistent  activity  and  energy  with 
which  every  living  thing  struggles  for  life ;  and  in  or- 
der to  stimulate  and  secure  this  activity  and  energy,  na- 
ture guarantees  to  equal  energies  or  abilities  equal  re- 
wards, and  to  superior  ability  greater  rewards ;  and  the 
certainty  of  these  impartial  rewards  —  in  other  words, 
absolute  justice  —  is  the  great  stimulus  of  nature,  with- 
out which  the  struggle  would  cease,  and  with  it  all 
life.  In  short,  Omnipotence  itself  does  not  dispense  with 
justice ;  neither  can  man. 

With  man  the  struggle  for  life  is  the  struggle  for 
wealth,  which  is  the  means  of  life.  By  wealth,  we  do 
not  mean  exclusively  money,  but  all  those  acquisitions 
which  serve  to  clothe,  feed,  or  protect  man,  for  which 
money  is  an  equivalent.  Without  wealth  man  must 
perish ;  with  it  he  lives,  and  his  prosperity,  comfort, 
and  happiness  are  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  wealth 
he  acquires.  Every  man,  therefore,  seeks  wealth ;  and 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  81 

the  more  certainly  that  equal  energies,  under  equal 
circumstances,  secure  equal  rewards,  —  in  otherwords, 
equal  wealth,  —  the  greater  will  be  the  effort  of  each 
individual  to  acquire,  by  doubled  energy  and  activity, 
doubled  rewards.  The  more  this  effort  increases,  the 
more  universal  it  becomes,  so  much  greater  is  the 
activity  and  prosperity  of  society.  (Opening  theme  in 
a  treatise  on  taxation  by  William  Minot,  Jr.,  published 
in  1877.) 

The  luxury  tax  has  fallen  into  desuetude ; 
but  in  1872,  under  the  title,  "  Die  Luxussteuer 
als  Correctiv  der  Einkommensteuer,"  Dr.  Leon 
Ritter  von  Bilinski,  of  the  University  of  Lem- 
berg,  quite  thoroughly  reviewed  the  subject; 
and  seemed  to  feel  that  the  tax  would  be  heard 
of  again.  He  regarded  its  existence  in  the  early 
period  of  statehood  as  unnecessary,  but  thought 
it  might,  at  some  time  in  the  future,  be  restored. 
He  observed  that  there  is  no  subject  of  finance- 
craft  which  should  be  handled  so  cautiously  and 
so  firmly  as  the  luxury  tax.  And  it  was  his  opin- 
ion, that,  while  it  is  rather  mischievous  for  the 
State  to  watch  the  expenses  of  its  citizens  for 
service,  equipages,  and  the  like,  yet  a  tax  reform 
such  as  seemed  necessary  in  certain  countries 
would  be  possible  by  means  of  a  proper  luxury 
tax.  That  such  a  method  would  permit  the  re- 


82      WHAT  ARE  THE  DEMANDS  OF 

moval  of  various  taxes  now  imposed :  among 
others,  "  the  consumers'  tax  on  articles  that  we 
all  individually  recognize  as  necessaries." 

He  goes  on  to  say,  "  In  order  that  such  a 
grand  reform  shall  ever  be  established,  people 
must  be  convinced  that  it  really  would  be  well 
to  levy  a  luxury  tax  "  ;  and,  "  it  should  have 
not  only  a  financial  but  a  high  social-political 
meaning."  He  states  that  the  object  of  his 
work  has  been  "to  give  an  impetus  toward  con- 
vincing people  and  to  show  a  way  of  establish- 
ing financial  reform,  and  to  give  a  scientific 
financial  solution  of  the  social  question." 

If  it  is  contended,  as  it  is,  that  the  use  of  the  power 
of  taxation  for  purposes  other  than  the  collection  of 
revenue  finds  justification  in  the  fact  that  "  the  law- 
maker must  look  far  enough  beyond  the  general  pur- 
pose to  satisfy  himself  how  any  proposed  levy  is  likely 
to  affect  the  general  good,"  a  sufficient  answer  to  such 
contention  would  seem  to  be  that  the  general  good  is 
always  best  subserved  by  doing  what  is  exactly  right, 
and  not  what  is  expedient.  (David  Ames  Wells, 
"Theory  and  Practice  of  Taxation,"  at  page  256.) 

The  prejudice  against  any  form  of  sumptuary 
laws  is  widespread  and  deep-rooted.  And  the 
same  prejudice  exists  against  interference  with 
natural  laws  of  trade.  The  plan  suggested  is 


THE  REFORM-AGITATOR  83 

intended  to  be  an  inquiry  —  nothing  more.  It 
would  open  the  door  to  "  socialism, "  and  con- 
siderable doubt  arises  as  to  its  feasibility.  No 
scheme  for  state  ownership  of  industries  would 
check  the  demand  for  higher  wages.  A  dead- 
lock might  in  time  be  created  between  even  the 
laborers  themselves  in  their  various  lines.  And 
the  difficulties  of  to-day,  of  a  practical  nature, 
would  still  be  encountered. 

If  the  Reforming- Agitator  has  a  plan  which 
will  lift  the  country  out  of  the  slough  of  de- 
spond in  which  it  has  been  floundering,  he 
should  offer  it  without  further  delay. 

What  are  his  demands  and  where  do  they 
lead? 


** 


STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


OCT  12    1933 


SEP  26  1935 


fSB  H'<i  1937 


RE 


cewep 


f% 


MAK    6   1949 


rpiu'66-5 


LOAN 


DEFT 


FEB   7  -   1955 


MW19T8 


R0V1O13& 


NOV  4    1965  68 


ocmts*!* 


LD  21-100m-7,'33 


Y.„S..£f..RKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CD5717515M 


281930 


.Mr 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


ffv* 


